Here's one heckuva tete-a-tete. Readers' antennae might set to quivering at the prospect of Jill Bialosky, editor, poet, and novelist, and A.M. Homes, novelist and professor, talking about books — any books. But on Friday at The Church in Sag Harbor their faculties of perception will be brought to bear on their own work, each other's work, new work.
"The Deceptions" is the latest novel from Ms. Bialosky, who lives in Bridgehampton and Manhattan. It's told in a kind of first-person "neo-diary," Kurt Wenzel wrote in his review in these pages, of "a New York City-based writer and educator going through a middle-age crisis," her entries involving her floundering marriage, a troubled son off in college, and a visiting poet-slash-paramour of dubious morals.
"There is nary a word out of place," Mr. Wenzel said, "and there are long stretches of prose where nearly every sentence carries an almost electric charge."
Meanwhile, Ms. Homes, a part-time East Hamptoner, is just out with "The Unfolding," which is nothing if not timely, given its portrait of a family coming apart at the seams over politics, from a dad with a not uncommon affliction — insanity brought on by the election of Barack Obama — to a daughter newly hip to the nonsense of the history she's been taught. Call it the rot beneath the American Dream.
The two authors will read, and there will be books for sale and a book signing. The start time is 6:30 p.m., and the cost is $15.
