While novelist/TV writer Jeffrey Lewis (top left) was accepting congratulations from friends on the publication of his latest novel, Adam the King, I stood at the edge of the living room as the party's host, Archibald Cox, Jr. asked me not to take that step forward, lest I grind a stray bit of tuna tartare into his carpet. While we stood guard over the offending particle and waited for a server to come by with a napkin, I took the opportunity to ask how the two men knew each other. "We're neighbors in Maine," Cox replied. "Of course," he continued, "being neighbors in Maine doesn't mean our houses are next to each other. Anyone within about 20-25 miles is considered a neighbor."

Meanwhile, across the room, Philip Lopate chatted with Other Press publisher Judith Gurewich and Ramona Naddaff of Zone Books about the galleys of his new novel, Two Marriages, which had just been hand-delivered to him by an Other Press publicist at the party, in anticipation of the book's release this fall.