A sleek marriage of luxury and literature

February 13, 2005

I got a real kick out of this story about Edward P. Jones doing a reading at a Volvo dealership near Washington, DC.

The reading at the car dealership may have been one of the stranger marriages of highbrow art and the mass market. Even Jones said afterward that when he got the invitation, he figured that he’d be appearing at a school or in a conference room. “I’ve never been in a car dealership before, not having a car,” he mused. “But I used to pass by here on the bus.”

Classic. And, by the way, is this the sort of thing we all talk about when we wish that literary fiction got more exposure? I think maybe it is.

created The Millions and is its publisher. He and his family live in New Jersey.