I very rarely have the opportunity to feel star-struck, but I did this afternoon, and it's all because of Adam Gopnik.



I have to admit that I didn't really know who he was until he came into vogue with Paris to the Moon, but that's also about the time that I started reading The New Yorker in earnest, so perhaps it's fair. So why become swoony upon meeting him? He was simply a delightful person to meet; very casual and interested and funny. And it was my first experience meeting someone whose work and art I honestly admire, and whose success I am quite impressed by, whom I was also able to speak to like a normal human being.

Well, sort of. Because he is not a particularly normal person. On one level he is abnormal on a upscale New Yorker (the type of person, not the magazine) level: he has taught his children to love naturally raised, most especially French, turkeys. But on another level, his knowledge is broad. He can tie into conversation, as into his essays, myriad strands of thought that could have been utterly disparate, and make them seemless.

And now I realize that I could go on gushing and swooning, but I won't. Why is it that he so impressed me, I wonder? I suppose it was just because he put me so much at ease.

Anyway, I recommend his new book, Through the Children's Gate, and I would love to know if anyone else is able to meet people that they're huge fans of without melting into a puddle afterwards.