`Marriage Plot’ author returns to Brooklyn
Author Jeffrey Eugenides identifies three sources that prompt someone to fall in love: divine inspiration, biology and Hugh Grant movies.
He dissects how we fall in love in “The Marriage Plot,” which brought him to DUMBO’s powerHouse Arena on Sept. 21 to launch a tour touting the novel’s paperback release. Eugenides read a passage and fielded questions about his Greek-American background, the chances of a “Marriage Plot” sequel (“It never occurred to me”) and the books that influenced him when he was young.
“When I was a child, I think it was either ’F Troop’ or ‘Gilligan’s Island’ that was a major influence,” he said. “I don’t actually remember. I wasn’t one of those kids that read lots of books that I remember.”
The event marked a return to Brooklyn for the Detroit-born Eugenides, who lived in the borough throughout much of the 1990s as he began the first draft of “Middlesex.” The wildly popular effort earned him the Pulitzer Prize, an entry in Oprah’s Book Club and the top spot on a slew of 2003 best-of lists.