Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2010 (22. évfolyam, 1-50. szám)
2010-05-07 / 18. szám
Stories of Survival: Daniele Mastrogiacomo was kidnapped by a Taliban warlord in Afghanistan in 2007. In his book, “Days of Fear”, La Repubblica’s war correspondent describes the ordeal he went through . Los Angeles Times Captain Richard Phillips was kidnapped by Somali pirates last year, and he put his life on the line to save his crew. His book, “A Captain’s Duty” (far left) became a bestseller, and he is my hero. The Festival of Books on the fabulous UCLA Westwood Campus has always been a lot of fun, ever since its inception in 1996. It was brought into existence with a simple goal: to bring together the people who create books with the people who love to read them. The festival was an immediate success and has become the largest and most prestigious book festival in the country, attracting large numbers of book lovers each year. I have covered it each year beginning with the second one, and it has been one of the cultural highlights of the past 15 years for me. This year’s Festival was no exception: it had the usual mixture of well-known and lesser known authors, old-timers and newcomers, religious, political or simply literature-oriented participants. The campus was teeming with people, and the media lounge offered a pleasant refuge for planning who and what to see. I noticed a subtle change in the mood of the Festival. It seems to be not so much about style and perfection of writing but rather about people with a story to tell. Of course you don’t know how the books are written unless you read them all. To be sure, many well-known mystery writers were present: Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, T. Jefferson Parker, Stuart Woods, and Lee Goldberg of “Monk” and “Diagnosis Murder” fame. But don’t expect to find a Hemingway or a Faulkner or a Steinbeck, an Umberto Eco or a Garcia Marquez on the panels. Not even Ray Bradbury, who for the first time was not there this year. And Charlton Heston and Sidney Sheldon have long been dead. Now that I got this off my chest, let me assure you that I found more than enough attractions to attend and to write about. I spent most of Saturday morning walking along the boardwalk between Royce Hall and the Powell Library. I checked out the booths of the radio stations, UCLA, L.A. Opera and the L.A. Theater Works. No celebrities were waiting for me at either, although on Sunday there was an opera performance on the ETC stage with two great young singers whose full names I still haven’t been able to find out with any certainty regarding the spelling. Their first names were Laura and Craig. If there is one thing I never miss, it is the Biography panel moderated by A. Scott Berg. He is the author of several great biographies including that of Samuel Goldwyn, the Lindbergh family and Katherine Hepburn. He usually spends a few years studying his subjects, sometimes even a decade, and in the meantime he acts as moderator at the Festival. This time his guests were Cari Beauchamp (“Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years”), Kirstin Downey (“The Woman Behind the New Deal: Frances Perkins”), and Linda Gordon, who had just won the literary award the night before for her book (“Dorothea Lange: a Life Beyond Limits”). I found out nice little bits of information such as, that the Kennedy patriarch did not really start the family fortune with bootlegging, because long before that he owned not one but three Hollywood studios. That Frances Perkins was FDR’s labor secretary, and we owe most safety nets such as unemployment insurance and social security benefits to her. The other highlight of the day was a panel called “Stories of Survival”, moderated by Jonathan Kirsch. I’m sure you all heard about Captain Richard Phillips, a 1979 graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy who put his life on the line for his ship and crew when Somali pirates attacked them exactly a year ago to the day. The Maersk Alabama was the sixth in a week to be attacked by pirates who had previously extorted ransoms in the tens of millions of dollars. It was the first successful pirate seizure of a ship registered under the American flag since the early 1800s. The captain was separated from his crew, being the only one held captive. He was greatly relieved to know that his crew and cargo were safe. He said pirates were not as bad as terrorists, because they had no political agenda, they only wanted the ransom money. He described his first encounter with the chief pirate who came in to his cabin yelling, “Don’t worry! It’s only BUSINESS!” Yet, there were times when he was not sure he would Popular mystery writer Stuart Woods was autographing on Saturday, while Saturday Night Live’s Sarah Silverman appeared on Sunday. Cari Beauchamp (left) and Linda Gordon relax before the panel. Gordon’s book on Dorothea Lange won the prize in Biography. ....... I,.,,.,,—------------------------------------------------------------AMERICAN Hungarian Journal Talk show host Tammy Bruce was interviewed by CSPAN Michael Scammell’s biography of Arthur Koestler was a runner-up for the Book Prize. Worth reading. Kirstin Downey (above) and A. Scott Berg (right) PHOTOREPORT BY SUSAN JANCSO
