First Day, Monday, May 23rd

After so much anticipation, some disappointment was expected.  The REMAINDERS PAVILION: I had imagined a huge hall full of devilishly tempting books, all waiting to be bought at ridiculously low prices.  The hall was big, all right, but the construction of the setting for the book exhibit was still going on, so there was a lot of unpleasant construction material around; there were some enticing books (by which I mean literary fiction, which is what I am mostly interested in) but most of the books on display were colorful travel guides...

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By the time I made it to the Pen Cabaret, I was beat-down tired. It was cold and raining and I was sort of hungry. But being a good little PEN Soldier, I scrambled over the Webster Hall. I bought a drink. It cost $24.

Bill T. Jones opened the night with an interpretive dance while reciting poetry by Dylan Thomas. Afterwards, Bea Palya turned her 5000 megawatt personality on the crowd. She had us all singing back up for her in a language we don't even know. Even me, as tired and hungry as I was....

2nd PEN Cabaret. Saturday night, May 3, Webster Hall.

The disembodied voice of Hungarian singer Bea Palya filled the darkness at the venerable night club Webster Hall as she emerged from the back alongside the audience, singing raw, no microphone, no spotlight, in a chillingly eloquent voice. She was the most self-contained of all the performers at PEN's second cabaret. (Writers, containing multitudes, are rarely as comfortable within their own fleshly bodies as she.) Palya took a microphone, singing playfully in front of the first table (where Rick Moody slumped as if to escape the unexpected shared spotlight, although he was onstage later with John Wesley Harding, aka novelist Wesley Stace)).

Palya took the stage, taught the audience to sing and clap along (not ready for floor stamping,...