Over the weekend, Mount Vernon Place attracted over 200 nationally and locally known authors, celebrity chefs, musicians and booksellers, not to mention hundreds of visitors, to the 11th annual Baltimore Book Festival. The Book Festival featured cooking demonstrations, children's activities, and well-known authors reading their work. The most high-profile writers of the weekend were Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm, and former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey.
Mr. Junger opened the Sunday afternoon reading sessions in the Walters Art Museum, but rather than read excerpts from his new book, A Death In Belmont, the true story of a 1963 rape-murder of Bessie Goldberg in the Boston suburb of Belmont, he spoke directly to his audience for his hour and challenged everyone to be a critical and rational reader.
Mr. Junger began by speaking about his college experience at Wesleyan University where he first developed his love of writing and reporting. After graduating, he wrote freelance but still need extra work. Most of Mr. Junger's books come out of personal experiences and his interest in writing about dangerous work and situations is derived from a job he had as a tree trimmer where he severely injured his leg with a chainsaw. While recovering, he lived in the fishing town of Gloucester, Mass. during the 1991 storm that would become the subject of the international bestseller The Perfect Storm.
He continued studying dangerous work during his stay in Afghanistan in 2000, six weeks of which were spent with then Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud. Mr. Junger's decision to cover the story of the fight between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban demonstrated another theme prevalent in his work, that of ignored but important stories. Of course, he had no idea at the time how important this country in turmoil and its warring groups would be to the United States in less than a year's time.
Mr. Junger's current book is also a story close to home. The murder occurred down the street from the Junger home when he was only a one-year old during the period Boston Strangler crimes. The police immediately arrested Roy Smith who was later convicted of the crime. However several years later a contractor named Alberto DeSalvo who had been in the Junger's house the day of the murder confessed to being the Boston Strangler.
Mr. Junger stressed the importance of his process. "The job of a journalist ultimately is to tell the truth," he said, and therefore, one can never fall prey to absolute thinking. At the beginning, he found himself falling into this trap with the desire to exonerate Roy Smith for the injustice that had been done to him, but as he learned more, he found the case to be much more complex. The chapters of the novel alternate back and forth between reasons why Smith is guilty and reasons why
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he is not and finally ends with "what do you, the reader, think?"
"The most important thing a reader can do is act like a jury," he says. Mr. Junger also emphasized the importance of being rational and offered a caveat especially about people who claim absolute certainty because there is no such thing.
Afterwards, former Governor Jim McGreevey took to the stage to discuss his book, The Confession. On August 12, 2004, Governor McGreevey announced, "I am a gay American," making him the first openly gay state governor in U.S. history. He chose to read passages that he said had the most meaning to him and best represented his personal feelings. These included his loneliness while keeping the secret, his feeling of being one person on the inside and another outside, and the apologies he felt he need to make, especially to the man with whom he had the relationship. Governor McGreevey only read brief passages and left the remainder of his time to questions of which he had many. He was especially passionate over a question regarding the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy of the U.S. military, believing it to be the embodiment of not telling the truth.
Governor McGreevey was most at ease discussing his family and his life now. He lives with his partner and has become involved in programs to help gay youth. He repeatedly said he is now in a more healthy and balanced place, and to be honest, he really seemed to be. He also could not resist a dig at his former colleagues, politicians, with the statement, "politics is show biz for ugly people," meaning everything in the political world is scripted.
Though both authors were very different, they each had an important message to stress to their readers. Mr. Junger does not want readers, or human beings for that matter, to passively sit around and accept everything they read. We must be rational and well-informed readers who have the ability to make our own judgments. Governor McGreevey wants his readers to know the importance of being comfortable with oneself because he very much regrets not realizing this twenty-five years ago. Maybe then the world can begin to progress.
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he is not and finally ends with "What do you, the reader, think?"
"The most important thing a reader can do is act like a jury," he said. Junger also emphasized the importance of being rational and offered a caveat about people who claim absolute certainty, because there is no such thing. Afterwards, former governor Jim McGreevey took the stage to discuss his book, The Confession. On Aug. 12, 2004, Governor McGreevey announced, "I am a gay American," making him the first openly gay state governor in U.S. history.
He chose to read passages that he said had the most meaning to him and best represented his personal feelings. These included his loneliness while keeping the secret, his feeling of being one person on the inside and another outside and the apologies he felt he needed to make, especially to the man with whom he had a relationship.
McGreevey only read brief passages and left the remainder of his time to questions, of which he received many. He was especially passionate over a question regarding the "don't ask, don't tell" policy of the U.S. military, believing it to be the embodiment of not telling the truth.
McGreevey was most at ease discussing his family and his life now. He lives with his partner and has become involved in programs to help gay youth. He repeatedly said he is now in a more healthy and balanced place, and to be honest, he really seemed to be. He also could not resist a dig at his former colleagues with the statement, "Politics is show biz for ugly people," meaning everything in the political world is scripted.
Though both authors were very different, they each had an important message to stress to their readers. Junger does not want readers, or human beings for that matter, to sit around passively and accept everything they read. We must be rational and well-informed readers who have the ability to make our own judgments. McGreevey wants his readers to know the importance of being comfortable with oneself because he very much regrets not realizing this 25 years ago. Maybe then the world can begin to progress.
