Members of the Raising A Reader MA staff secretly love reading the Proust Questionnaire in the back of Vanity Fair. We decided to share our own version of this personality test with political thriller writer Joseph Finder (Buried Secrets, Paranoia) and the other VIP Authors attending our 2013 Dinner with an Author fundraising event at the Hampshire House.
What is your favorite book? Today it’s John Fowles’ The Magus. Tomorrow it’ll be Fifth Business by Robertson Davies. Then it’ll be Marathon Man by William Goldman. I distrust anyone who can answer this question the same way twice.
Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine? The Jackal (from Frederick Forsyth’s classic thriller). Smart, professional, stylish, resourceful, and he always dines excellently.
Who is your favorite real life hero or heroine? My sister-in-law, Isobel Appiah-Endresen, who lives in Namibia and has devoted her life to fighting racism and disease among women in Africa.
If you could have dinner with one author, living or dead, who would it be? I’d prefer living. If you mean reanimated (since dining with a skeleton isn’t high on my bucket list, and since I’m lucky enough to have some great living authors as friends and occasional dinner companions), I’m going to say Moses, just to get the backstory behind those ten commandments.
If you could choose one place to live for the rest of your life, where would it be? I’d hate to give up my place on Cape Cod, but if it’s only one, it has to be Boston.
What is your motto? Reverse, reveal, surprise.
What talent would you most like to have? Piano. If I could play jazz and pop piano music, I’d have happily been a lounge lizard.
What was your proudest moment? My college-age daughter, Emma, who constantly amazes me and awes me with her empathy and her kindness and her creativity and sense of humor and her ability to reel off lines from “30 Rock” and “The Office.” But I have to share credit equally with her mother.
What do you think is the most overrated virtue? Modesty.
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Talk more with Joseph Finder and all of our VIP Authors at Raising A Reader MA’s Dinner with an Author on Wednesday, April 3 at the Hampshire House. Tickets are $250 and available by calling 617.292.BOOK (2665).