An Amusing Evening With Eric Bogosian

This evening my roomie and I went to see actor/writer Eric Bogosian read from his new book Perforated Heart.

We're both big Law & Order: Criminal Intent fans and his role on that show is such a contrast to most of his work as a dramatist and monologist (i.e. Talk Radio and Sex, Drugs & Rock n' Roll).

The book is about a successful middle aged writer who comes across his old journals and realizes how immature he was without realizing how immature he still is.

Bogosian read several passages from the book. The style and dialogue reminded me a great deal of Jim Bouton's Ball Four which incidentally is the book that changed my life in the eighth grade. Subsequent to reading the book I kept a journal for the better part of a decade. I'm sure I would be similarly aghast if I were to look at it today. Especially my espousal for socialism.

I told him this and asked him if he had read Ball Four. He said a little defensively, "A little. Why? Is it the same book?"

I later had the opportunity to tell him that the comparison was a compliment adding that Ball Four turned my life upside down. Bogosian, "Well, maybe my book can turn your life right side up."

Touché.

Needless to say it was weird to meet Bogosian in the flesh and then see him a few hours later on a re-run of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.