{"id":13915,"date":"2025-07-06T12:40:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T19:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=13915"},"modified":"2025-07-17T12:42:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T19:42:44","slug":"new-canaan-buzz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2025\/07\/06\/new-canaan-buzz\/","title":{"rendered":"New Canaan Buzz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

from Moffly Media<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Canaan Darien Editor\u2019s Letter: Buzz about town<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

by Eileen Murphy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
New Canaan residents and enthusiasts, Eileen Murphy and James Frey at The Glass House Summer Party. \u2013 Photograph by Neil Landino<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is a book that lives on my nightstand called Me Talk Pretty<\/em> by the American humorist David Sedaris. I don\u2019t bother to put it back on the shelf because something will remind me of one of the stories, and I will reach for it again and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently I reread a story in which Sedaris explains how he asks obscure and often silly questions to strangers while traveling because he finds they tend to start fascinating conversations. This reminded me of what has recently become my favorite question to ask people around New Canaan: \u201cHave you heard about James Frey\u2019s new book?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The replies have been varied and passionate. Frey and his books seem to evoke strong reactions in people. Some locals were excited that his novel, Next to Heaven<\/em>, was set in New Canaan (or \u201cNew Bethlehem\u201d as Frey calls it in the book). Others were skeptical about a book with dark themes and \u201cswingers parties\u201d being set in their hometown. Either way, once advance copies hit Elm Street Books in early June, it quickly became the talk of the town, with everyone wanting to know: Is it fact or fiction?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frey addressed the rumors in a recent coversation with the actress Gina Gershon at the New Canaan Library. He assured the standing-room-only crowd that it is fiction, not based on real people or events. He also said that it is his job as a writer to \u201chold up a mirror and tell a story about what I see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ click to continue reading at Moffly Media<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from Moffly Media New Canaan Darien Editor\u2019s Letter: Buzz about town by Eileen Murphy There is a book that lives on my nightstand called Me Talk Pretty by the American humorist David Sedaris. I don\u2019t bother to put it back on the shelf because something will remind me of one of the stories, and I will reach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art","category-literary-news","category-projects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}