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Max Barry

Max Barry is an author who has written three books. First was a novel titled Syrup, which I have yet to read, followed by Jennifer Government and then Company, which was just published last month. If you've heard of any of these books, it was most likely Jennifer Government. It has developed a bit of a cult following and the movie rights for it have been optioned by George Cloony and Steve Soderbergh. Anyway, in support of the new novel, Company, Max went on a five city book tour of the US (he himself is Australian). He was in New York last night, so a friend of mine and I went to check it out. The beginning of Company, which he chose to read for his readings on this tour, is set deep within a corporations cubicle filled fourteenth floor. It's first thing in the morning and the daily morning snacks that catering delivers to this particular department today are doughnuts. There is one too few doughnuts, however, and the character who goes hungry sets out to find out who took two doughnuts. He goes to great lengths to find this out and through this we begin to see how this company actually operates. No doubt that its not too dissimlar from large corporations many of us work at (I'm looking at you, Marco). Anyway, someone who this character suspects of taking his doughnut ends up getting fired over the fiasco, but he's still not satisfied. And it goes on and on from there. (I didn't ruin anything for you, all of this happens within the first 15 pages or so of the book.)

So the bar where this reading took place last night was pretty packed, though it was a small bar. Recognizing Max from the book jacket picture, I see him walking amongst the crowd handing out doughnuts. When he makes his way to Don and myself, we strike up a quick conversation with him. He asks if we've read the new book yet and although I'm only about a third of the way through it, I tell him I have. Don has not and tells him so, but says that he looks forward to reading it. Max quips, "Yeah, you'll enjoy it. It's one of my three favorite books."

Shortly after that, Max begins the reading and I find it strange to hear the characters talk with an Australian accent. Max actually comments on this shortly after I think about this, which is weird, but I'm sure he's become used to it with the previous readings he's done. He suggest that we all imagine this story takes place in Melbourne instead of Seattle. So after the reading, he answers questions for about a half hour and some of these questions are so ridiculous I was actually surprised that people in real life ask such questions. Questions like, "In Jennifer Government where everybody takes the surname of the company they work for, you made it a point to say that children who were still in school take the surname of the corporation which owns that particular school. But I wonder, what name would an infant who is not yet in school take? You never made that clear in the book." These kinds of questions make me want to slap my forehead with my palm, however, Max had an answer ready for every insane question like this, making me think he gets questions like this often. I find this unfortunate.

So then after the Q&A, I wait in line for about 45 minutes to have my first editions of both Jennifer Government and Company signed. I finally get up to him and he looks at me in way such as to say, "What do you want to talk about?" I didn't really have anything in particular to bring up, so I asked him how long he was going to be in New York and things to this effect. He actually turned that into an interesting conversation about what he's been doing here, and how he enjoys his time here because he has so many friends here. Then he asked me how I came to know about Jennifer Government. I had to think about that for a moment before I remembered that I had read a review of it in Time and then bought it based on that. He was surprised by this and told me that I was the first person he had ever met who found him via a book review. "That's surprising, isn't it? Thats why I never put any stock into what is said about my books in reviews, but I guess that they actually do serve a purpose." Then he started signing JG. He wrote, "Proving that reviews actually are good for something! Max Barry" While he was writing that, I started explaining how I came to know about Company. I was browsing the Chuck Palahniuk website and I saw an ad for the new Max Barry book. He told me about how much that website has helped his career and he is thankful for Chuck being so supportive of him. "I don't really understand how we have the same reader base, but I guess we both are kind of satirical, irreverent writers, but I think he is alot darker than I am." (I don't remember exaclty what he said. Though it was something to that effect, it was much more articulate.) He also made it clear how big a fan of Chucks he was, although they had never met which surprised me. I told him how I could see how people could be fans of both of them, but maybe thats just because I personally am a fan of both. I pointed out, however, that I had been to a Palahniuk reading and Max had many more women at his. Many very cute women, at that. "I know! But this is unusual. This is the first stop on the tour where this many beautiful women have shown up. Cheers to New York City!" We both laughed, but then we realized that we were within earshot of the very girls we were speaking of, so we both felt a little scummy. That was about it. He signed Company, I said it was nice to meet him, which it was, shook his hand and then left.

Like I said, I didn't really have any intentions of speaking to him about anything in particular, but I think we ended up having a pretty decent conversation. Maybe thats the way to go: no intentions or motives. It worked out well. Anyway... Add Max Barry to the small but growing list of awesome authors I've met.