{"id":6389,"date":"2010-10-15T17:46:26","date_gmt":"2010-10-15T21:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=6389"},"modified":"2010-10-27T14:14:30","modified_gmt":"2010-10-27T18:14:30","slug":"adaptation-lending-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/15\/adaptation-lending-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Adaptation; Lending Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I’m a student at the Tisch School for the Arts in New York City, where I concentrate in writing for musical theater. I’d like to adapt a novella or short story for the stage and was hoping you might have some suggestions.<\/p>\n

Thanks,
\n
Leslie<\/em><\/p>\n

Since<\/em> you ask\u2014I\u2019ve always thought Gr\u00e9goire Bouillier\u2019s novella-length memoir, The Mystery Guest<\/a><\/em>, would make a fantastic play. It\u2019s the true story of a guy who goes to a fancy party where he doesn\u2019t know anybody, hoping to find out why his girlfriend walked out on him five years before. To my mind, it\u2019s very dramatic stuff. At FSG we even made a fake movie trailer<\/a> to promote it. Full disclosure: I translated the thing into English, but I signed away any royalties years ago. I just want to hear someone sing a show tune about Sophie Calle.<\/p>\n

Dear Lorin,<\/p>\n

I have a dear friend who is very bad at returning the books I lend him. I don\u2019t want to stop lending him books, but I would like them back when he is finished. I\u2019ve asked after one collection of Chekhov stories twice already\u2014I am afraid I shall become a nuisance if I bring it up again. How would you proceed? \u2014Put-out friend<\/em><\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it surprising when people don\u2019t return books? I have lost Norman Rush\u2019s Mortals<\/a><\/em>, the complete poems of Thomas Hardy in a two-volume edition I loved, an edition of Keats ditto, Michel Leiris\u2019s Manhood<\/em>, my first copy of Infinite Jest<\/a><\/em>, Jos\u00e9 Saramago\u2019s Blindness<\/a><\/em>, most of the novels of Evan Connell, Yukio Mishima\u2019s Confessions of a Mask<\/a><\/em> … the list goes on. It happens. And apparently I\u2019ve been the culprit, too. (My college library tracked me down a few years ago looking for a missing volume of Bleak House<\/a><\/em>\u2014some fifteen years and four apartments after the fact.) I have friends who never lend books for exactly this reason. For me it’s worth the risk. A book on the shelf is just waiting to die. And books die: They fall apart. So do their owners. It makes me sad to think that I may be the last person to read some book I own. My suggestion to you is that you keep lending with an open hand. Make peace with the chance that you may not\u2014the certainty that you will not\u2014always get your books back. One nice thing about books is how easy they are to replace.<\/p>\n

Have a question for <\/em>The Paris Review? E-mail<\/a> us.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m a student at the Tisch School for the Arts in New York City, where I concentrate in writing for musical theater. I’d like to adapt a novella or short story for the stage and was hoping you might have some suggestions. Thanks, Leslie Since you ask\u2014I\u2019ve always thought Gr\u00e9goire Bouillier\u2019s novella-length memoir, The Mystery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1084,17,1085,1082,1083,1086],"class_list":["post-6389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-the-paris-review","tag-adaptation","tag-books","tag-gregoire-bouillier","tag-library","tag-loans","tag-the-mystery-guest"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAdaptation; Lending Books by Lorin Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 15, 2010 \u2013 I'm a student at the Tisch School for the Arts in New York City, where I concentrate in writing for musical theater. 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