John Krasinski and David Foster Wallace's endless summer
As
summer winds to a close, so too has Infinite Summer -- the online readers group that
challenged the brave and the bold to take on David Foster Wallace's 1,088-page
novel "Infinite Jest."
To
celebrate, Skylight Books is hosting a closing party tomorrow at 8 p.m. Joining in will be actor John Krasinski ("The Office"), who makes his directorial debut with the upcoming film "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men" -- based
on another Wallace book -- to read some excerpts and sign posters. Appearing
also will be Wallace's longtime literary agent Bonnie Nadell; Kathleen
Fitzpatick, who taught with him at Pomona College; and other special guests.
The
29 year-old Krasinski, whom most everyone knows as Jim from "The
Office," got permission to film Wallace's story collection from the
author himself before Wallace died a year ago.
"I
remember him being so soft-spoken and so nice," said Krasinski during an
interview with Rebecca Harper on Hulu.com. "He put me at ease right away. I
remember him being flattered that someone had taken up this book and tried to
run it up the hill."
Krasinski started his adaptation of "Brief
Interviews" while waiting tables in New York. When he was cast in the
pilot for "The Office," he used the money to buy the rights to the book.
Written
as a series of 23 short stories, "Brief Interviews" lends itself to
easy transcription into other media. Vince Passaro's review in Salon notes that "Wallace writes
of young boys at the pool, middle-aged men in uncomfortable sexual situations
and [a] woman who unbearably narrates her pathologies in the neo-vocabulary of
healing and therapy."
For
Krasinski, the book arrived with "almost near-perfect dialogue and the
biggest challenge was editing it down to a piece that could actually fit into a
watchable movie rather than an epic miniseries or something."
So
which characters made the cut from the page to the screen? You'll have to see
the film to find out. Due Sept. 25, "Brief Interviews
With Hideous Men" marks Krasinski's debut as a writer-director. It's also the first
time that any of Wallace's fiction has been adapted for the screen.
-- George Ducker
photo credit: Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Times