One of the oddest book parties in recent memory took place Thursday night at the Waverly Inn, and New York’s Simon van Zuylen-Wood was on hand to capture it. The event was in honor of Salman Rushdie and his new memoir, Knife — an account of the assassination attempt he survived two summers ago, when he was stabbed 15 times while speaking onstage and lost an eye. Hosted by Graydon Carter and packed with novelists, literary figures, and (for reasons unknown) Tony Danza, it marked Rushdie’s physical, social, and critical comeback. The attack came after years of withering pans of his work, but post-stabbing takes on his writing have been much more favorable. Yet no one at the party was in a position to evaluate the new book: There was but a single copy present, and it was jealously guarded by Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, who wouldn’t share even a peek inside. |
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