As part of our mission to promote authors, the joy of reading, and to better understand the craft of writing and the living of life, we’ve paired with the The Norwich Bookstore in Norwich, Vermont to present an ongoing series entitled “3 Questions”. In it, we pose three questions to authors with upcoming visits to the bookstore. Their responses are posted on The Book Jam during the days leading up to their engagement. Our hope is that this exchange will offer insight into their work and will encourage readers to both attend these special author events and read their books.
Today, we feature Noah Isenberg and his work We’ll Always Have Casablanca.
Mr. Isenberg is director of screen studies and professor of culture and media at The New School, the author of Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins, editor of Weimar Cinema, and the recipient of an NEH Public Scholar Award. He lives in Brooklyn, New York and will be in the Upper Valley for the summer teaching at Dartmouth College.
Mr. Isenberg will appear at the Norwich Bookstore at 6 pm on Thursday, June 29th to discuss We’ll Always Have Casablanca. Please note that this event is a discussion circle, a more informal event than the store’s Wednesday evening speaker series. However, advance reservations are still recommended. Call 802-649-1114 or email info@norwichbookstore.com to reserve your seat.
1.What three books have helped shape you into the author you are today, and why?
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, which I first read as a teenager living in Stockholm, Sweden (it was part of the International Baccalaureate course in world literature), taught me the power of storytelling. Susan Sontag’s Under the Sign of Saturn introduced me to the exquisite craft of the essay and the central role of the critic in cultural, aesthetic, and political debates. And Franz Kafka’s The Trial for its ability to haunt, to transport, and to captivate the reader.
2.What author (living or dead) would you most like to have a cup of coffee with and why?
I’d like to have (had) coffee with Susan Sontag, to discuss with her the life she led during her years as a novelist, playwright, critic, and filmmaker. I’d want to know more about her teens in North Hollywood and about her college friendship, at Chicago, with filmmaker Mike Nichols, and about her extraordinary work as an essayist.
3.What books are currently on your bedside table?
Martha Gellhorn, A Stricken Field
Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head
Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend
Marshall Berman, Modernism in the Streets
Phillip Lopate, A Mother’s Tale
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