I am Martin Page’s American editor. When I first read Bruce Benderson’s translation of The Discreet Pleasures of Rejection, I immediately thought that the main character–Virgil–resembles a young Woody Allen. Or rather, he resembles one of the characters Allen played in his own movies. Which might be the same. And I’ve made the same comparison in almost every conversation I’ve had about the book.
Later on, once the book was sent to the printer, I decided to ask Martin about the similarities. I’ll admit I was slightly fearful, if only because I knew little about his film tastes and feared he might be horribly offended by the suggestion. I didn’t want to come across like Tim Robbins in Altman’s Hollywood satire The Player, as someone who’d suggest that, for example, the book is like Annie Hall meets The Stranger. Fortunately, he wasn’t offended. In fact, as you’ll see if/when you read through his answers, he has a great deal to say on those similarities and on a great many other related works of art, some literary and some cinematic.
So we kept emailing. (I wish it had actually been something akin to what’s seen in My Dinner with Andre, but oh well.) And the answers he gave me were incredible–these long, sprawling musings on all sorts of things, all of them witty, thought-provoking, and entertaining.
And we still are, at least until I offend him, bore him, or make a fool of myself with some sort of wholly ignorant remark, at which point I’ll hardly blame him for breaking off contact.
If you’d like to contribute a question, or complain, or offer laudatory praise, email me at discreet.pleasures.rejection@gmail.com
Happy reading,
Tom Roberge
