Writing the Myth of Moses (Robert Moses)
ARTHUR NERSESIAN, a 49-year-old playwright, poet and novelist whose wavy gray hair gives him the look of a 1960s English professor, rummaged through the black messenger bag lying next to him in a booth at the Moonstruck Diner in the East Village. Then he gleefully pulled out what appeared to be three coverless, battered paperbacks and slid them across the table.
Closer analysis revealed these volumes to be, in fact, three parts of one eviscerated book, taped together and covered with handwritten notes. Stacked one on top of the other, they formed a substantial brick whose spines, in bold red capitals, collectively revealed the title, “The Power Broker,” Robert Caro’s 1,100-plus-page 1974 biography of Robert Moses, New York’s master builder.
In their boldness, Mr. Nersesian’s cuts seemed the equal of any of the highways or housing projects created by the book’s formidable subject.
“When I read the book, I just tore into it,” Mr. Nersesian recalled happily. “I ripped it up so I could deal with each piece like an individual novel. It was a heat wave, and I went to the beach about 30 times that summer, and this was my sole companion.
“I wouldn’t even go with anyone,” he added. “I was just having an affair with this book.”
The progeny to date of the love affair that began in 2006 are two novels in a projected five-volume series titled “The Five Books of Moses.” They present a fictionalized account of Moses and his impact on New York, and are being published by Akashic Books, a small New York press that specializes in adventurous urban writing often overlooked by more mainstream houses.
Read entire article at NYT
Closer analysis revealed these volumes to be, in fact, three parts of one eviscerated book, taped together and covered with handwritten notes. Stacked one on top of the other, they formed a substantial brick whose spines, in bold red capitals, collectively revealed the title, “The Power Broker,” Robert Caro’s 1,100-plus-page 1974 biography of Robert Moses, New York’s master builder.
In their boldness, Mr. Nersesian’s cuts seemed the equal of any of the highways or housing projects created by the book’s formidable subject.
“When I read the book, I just tore into it,” Mr. Nersesian recalled happily. “I ripped it up so I could deal with each piece like an individual novel. It was a heat wave, and I went to the beach about 30 times that summer, and this was my sole companion.
“I wouldn’t even go with anyone,” he added. “I was just having an affair with this book.”
The progeny to date of the love affair that began in 2006 are two novels in a projected five-volume series titled “The Five Books of Moses.” They present a fictionalized account of Moses and his impact on New York, and are being published by Akashic Books, a small New York press that specializes in adventurous urban writing often overlooked by more mainstream houses.