EGGERS AND POLLACK WILL ALWAYS HAVE DALLAS

Those who follow such matters will know that one-time literary darling Dave Eggers and one-time egoist Neal Pollack aren’t as tight as they used to be. The latter writes about his desire to be done with his self-imposed persona of “The Greatest Living American Writer” in yesterday’s NYTimes Book Review. He says Dallas is what did it, eventually, after a reading at Arts & Letters Live, summing up just about everything with the quote, “Blurgh.” The former, as is his wont, writes a correction that’s almost as long as the original essay. In it, Eggers says the reading in Dallas–in particular, the Q & A after it–is what drove the wedge between their relationship. It’s so deliciously 8th grade. And, if you’re curious, my respect and admiration for Pollack has risen in an inverse relation to that of Eggers.