‘Searching for John Hughes’ author to speak about memoir in Cobble Hill
Brooklyn BookBeat
“Searching for John Hughes: Or Everything I Thought I Needed to Know about Life I Learned from Watching ’80s Movies,” the first book by Jason Diamond, the founder of Vol. 1 Brooklyn whose writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Paris Review, Pitchfork, Vice, Bookforum, McSweeney’s, and many other publications, will be published by William Morrow on Nov. 29. On Nov. 28, the author will appear in Cobble Hill (163 Court St.) at 7 p.m. to discuss his book with Danielle Henderson.
Diamond’s hilarious and poignant memoir reveals how a Jewish kid from a broken home in a Chicago suburb — sometimes homeless, always restless — found comfort and connection in the likewise broken lives in the suburban Chicago of John Hughes’ oeuvre.
A writer at heart, Diamond decided early on that it would fall to him to write a biography of his favorite filmmaker. It didn’t matter to him that he had no qualifications, training, background, platform or direction. Thus went the years-long, delusional, earnest and assiduous quest to reach his goal. In the meantime, he brewed coffee, guarded cupcake cafes and built up a respectable writing career. And all the while, he watched John Hughes movies religiously. Though his original biography of Hughes has long since been abandoned, Diamond has discovered he is a writer through and through. And the adversity of going for broke has now been transformed into wisdom. Or, at least, a really, really good story.
