Indie Bookstores Love Colbert and Franzen’s Bedtime Story
Wednesday night on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, very serious author Jonathan Franzen, the man who once gave Oprah Winfrey the cold shoulder when she wanted to promote his books, paid a visit to Colbert’s show. He was there to plug his new novel Purity, and you can bet Colbert kidded him about his stiff-necked approach to new media and promotion.
Franzen opened with some faux humility, suggesting that people must wonder what a very serious author is doing on a late-night show. “I care who you are — that’s why you’re here,” said Colbert bluntly, following it up with: “You say you want ‘serious readers.’ What’s a serious reader? Is it someone who enjoys a book but doesn’t show it?”
The two had a nice time together. Franzen spilled on his work process (1,000 words a day, six or seven days a week, five hours a day). The segment was nice, but the best came last — literally. After the Alabama Shakes had blown parts of the roof off the Ed Sullivan Theater, Colbert returned for a final segment: a bedtime story.
Franzen read the little-boy Colbert a story about “Little Red Reading Hood,” and how she was accosted by a wolf whose characteristics sounded an awful lot like a big book-selling company like, oh, say Amazon. The story told how the wolf had gobbled up independent bookstores, but in the end, goodness prevailed.
Once again, Colbert demonstrated why his talk show in unlike all the other late-night shows, with its wide-ranging bookings and pointed comedy. And it kind of worked: I almost want to read Purity now.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on CBS.
