Alain de Botton in San Francisco

Alain de Botton came to San Francisco on a book tour in early August of '97. His brief stop in the bay area included two readings and innumerable interviews on radio and television. As the tour approached, Pantheon staff people called me to ask if I could let people know about the scheduled readings, which were also belated birthday celebrations for our Marcel.

Unfortunately, both the readings were scheduled at locations out of town. I entreated them to find at least one city appearance, but it had all been pre-ordained. The first was at Black Oak Books in Berkeley, the second at Clean Well Lighted Place For Books at Larkspur Landing. It was hard to imagine who might actually attend these early evening events, except for the Marcel Proust Support Group members who lived in those counties, and to my knowledge, there isn't a single Marinite among them. I told the people at Pantheon that Marin was not a good location, but they assured me that How Proust Can Change Your Life was selling very well there. Yes, I said, it probably is, but that has nothing to do with Proust. The copies of Proust on bookstore shelves in Marin are covered with dust. What the Marin readers buy is self-help books.

Half a dozen support group members did turn up in Berkeley, but almost all of them lived and worked in the area. From the beginning of the reading we were delighted. Alain de Botton is a charming, erudite and funny young man who has a right to airs but has none. We really wanted to take him out for cocktails after the reading because he seemed like just the kind of person we'd like to socialize with, but we were lucky to get a few minutes to introduce ourselves. The price of success is demands on his time; he was off to another interview.

Our first meeting with Alain de Button made it well worth taking the ferry out to the wilds of Marin on day two. Marin is accesible enough if you have a car, but a bit of a stretch on public transit. I decided to add a bit of color to the long commute by taking the ferry, on which I could fantasize that I was vacationing, somewhere between the white cliffs of Dover and Calais. It was a lovely day to be standing on the back deck, gentle wind rippling my clothes and tugging at my hat, until half-way out into the bay where a huge cloud of seasonal fog waited, as it usually does in San Francisco, to make summer clothing a mistake.

I did run into two other friends on the ferry, and another small group of the faithful did show for Alain's second appearance. Once again we all enjoyed the reading tremendously, and tried to snatch the author away afterwards for drinks in the balmy setting of Marin. And once again, no such luck. I have dreamed myself of doing a book tour one of these days, but never imagined that an author could have so little chance for unscheduled fun. Of course the author of How Proust Can Change Your Life has evaded one piece of Proustian wisdom, and confesses to retiring early; so it was that even a late-night chinwag with the MPSG was impossible.

All of us who made it to the readings in the hinterlands of San Francisco look forward to the day when Alain de Botton returns and has the chance to play with us.

P Segal