TALK SHOW
Hosted by Jaime Clarke

Topic: First Kiss

Guests:

Mike Albo is the author of Hornito: My Lie Life and, with Virginia Heffernan, The Underminer: or, The Best Friend Who Casually Destroys Your Life. A writer and perfomer, Albo lives in New York City. Visit him online at www.mikealbo.com.

David Hollander is the author of the novel, L.I.E. A graduate of the State University of New York at Purchase and the Sarah Lawrence College writing program, he lives in Brooklyn.

Molly Jong-Fast is the author of the weirdly popular cult novel Normal Girl and Girl Maladjusted (both published by Villard). She is currently working on her third book a novel called The Social Climber’s Handbook which is due out from Villard in 2009. Her website is www.mollyjongfast.com, and myspace page is www.myspace.com/mollyjongfast.

Lewis Robinson is the author of Officer Friendly and Other Stories, winner of the PEN/Oakland-Josephine Miles Award. He teaches in the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. His website is www.lewisrobinson.com.

Wesley Stace, whose latest novel is by George, is also known as the musician John Wesley Harding. He is working on his third novel and sixteenth record. He lives in Brooklyn, NY. Visit Wes at www.wesleystace.com.


––Name the year and place of your first kiss, and with whom.

Albo: I am assuming you mean real kiss with passion and meaning, which would be with a guy, which would be when I was 17 in 1987. I think it was in my bedroom (how the hell did I get him up there?)

Hollander: Well, the first kiss was no doubt administered by my dear mother, mere moments after my unfortunate birth in 1969. But my first romantic kiss came embarrassingly late in life, in 1986 at the overripe age of 16. This kiss took place (like so many first kisses) in a drainage ditch, or “sump,” during a typically awful Long Island heat wave. There on the sandy slopes, blinded by a miasma of raw sewage and toxic runoff, I kissed Vanessa Vega. Redhead, my age-ish, cousin of a friend.

Jong-Fast: He was called Teddy and we were in third grade. I had such a crush on him. He was just the nicest guy. I'm pretty sure it was against his will, I just sort of fell on him. I'm sure it was horrible for him, but I was sort of a hero for doing it.

Robinson: 1983, in the Yarmouth (Maine) Junior High cafeteria. Late fall, school dance. There were these French Canadian girls who I was obsessed with, but I’d never talked to. Danielle Paquet was the ringleader, but it was her quiet sidekick—Jackie Roux—who was truly amazing. Black feathered hair to her shoulders, Motley Crue T-shirt under a green and blue plaid flannel.

Stace: I'm afraid that I can't actually remember the precise first kiss, though it was certainly in Hastings with a girl called Caroline, whose brother was in the church choir and liked Ian Dury and Chuck Mangione. I was twelve, perhaps thirteen. The year: 1977. There was some form of grappling with Caroline and a lot of work with little reward - by which I don't mean physical contact (not that there was much of that - I'm not even sure about tongues, in retrospect) but a twelve year old's idea of emotional fulfillment. There is a possibility that she simply didn't want to be my girlfriend. So I'm settling for the proper first kiss - the one that meant something. It was in 1979 with Rebecca on Cadborough Cliff in Rye, East Sussex.