Michael Idov is that rara avis who, having failed in the so-called «real» world, has been forced back into his day job as a novelist. Ground Up, loosely based on Idov's Lower East Side coffeehouse dream-turned-fiasco, has its release party at the Russian Samovar this Tuesday, August 4th, at 7pm. The lessons of failure must taste sweet to Idov, though, as his novel already basks in lots of praise, including that of a sort of literary uncle, Gary Shteyngart, who claims he «drank it right up» and found it «charming, manic and delicious.» Although I haven't yet read the book, I have my own personal theory about why Idov's coffeehouse failed, namely, that he idiotically called it «Café Trotsky,» giving the impression that it was a filthy hole where you would go to smoke a lot of cigarettes and talk revolution for hours over the single glass of tea you and your foul-smelling comrades could afford, when what Idov really hoped the masses would do was grab three or four cappucinos to go, every day. And then there are the depressing associations with Trotsky's untimely and gruesome demise at the hands of an NKVD (precursor to the KGB) agent in Mexico. Bad karma. But what do I know about what's in a name? I was convinced post-911 America would never elect a guy named Barack Hussein Obama to the presidency. Anyway, if you miss what will surely be a fun and elegant book party this Tuesday, Idov's doing a reading at the KGB bar in September.
Bizarre (is it not?) that "Cafe Trotsky" is doomed to fail, but "KGB Bar" can flourish? Or, actually, it's all too true to life!
ReplyDeleteIf you want to view Trotsky in a whole new light, David Ives' "Variations on the Death of Trotsky" is a must!