Lunch, Literature, and Distraction

Dwight Garner is one of the most feared and yet funny voices in the pages of The New York Times Book Review, where he's one of their most beloved critics, as well as the former editor. He's now the author of a brand new book called The Upstairs Delicatessen and in today's session we talk all about being a book critic with a book, facing the authors whose books he pans, reading his wife's work, how he stays focused (and gets through three hundred pages in a day), and how he knows so many literary quotes. We also cover his membership in The Organ Meat Society, the three martini lunch, how he makes his martinis, celebrity cookbooks, our dogs, and much much more.