Sunday, August 07, 2005
Turning Up The Heat On Michael Finkel
The Des Moines Register reported last week that Michael Finkel, author of True Story: Murder, Memoir, and Mea Culpa, has been promoting his book by stopping off in libraries in the course of a bicycle ride across Iowa:
The guilt he says he has about his past wasn't reflected in his demeanor as he walked around Titonka on Wednesday in a bright yellow Hawaiian shirt with blue flowers, distributing some of the 2,000 bookmarks he brought along on the ride. On Wednesday, he had worked halfway through the stack.One detail left out of the newspaper piece: this story was filed during a week of horrible, horrible heat here in Iowa City. I do not envy this man out in the sun on his bike.
"I'm getting rid of them," he said. "I'm not taking any home."
A hardcover copy of his book is tied with a cord to the back of his bike, along with more bookmarks.
"A lot of people think it's religious material," Finkel said as one man refused a bookmark. "I already know Jesus," the rider yelled back to him as he walked to his weathered bike.
