Last night a crowd of literature lovers filled up Three Lives & Co. bookstore and spilled into the West Village street for a literary block party–celebrating the release of Granta 107. Among the attendees were Zadie Smith, Joshua Ferris, John Wray, and Granta acting editor John Freeman.

During the festivities, GalleyCat caught up with Salman Rushdie (pictured, via), who just finished a screenplay draft for his classic novel, “Midnight’s Children.” The author said he was looking forward to reading a copy of Thomas Pynchon‘s “Inherent Vice” this summer. “It sounds like his most lighthearted book since Vineland,” he told this reporter, recalling a dinner he had with the reclusive Pynchon while reviewing “Vineland” for the NY Times.

“He was extremely Pynchon-eque. He was the Pynchon I wanted him to be,” explained Rushdie. He wouldn’t describe the secretive author, but wished he could have befriended Pynchon. “He never called again,” Rushdie concluded, ruefully.