McGreevey Comes Out Again

I recently indulged in my favorite guilty pleasure: BookExpo America. This year it was in Washington, D.C.

It's three days of book-lover's heaven, intellectual (or not) decadence, gluttony for the imagination. It's every publisher imaginable showing off their books -- their best sellers, their dogs, their upcoming catalog of hopefuls -- to booksellers. And checking out their competition.

It's 3 days of authors signing their books, including the biggest ones on the best seller lists and prepublication copies from authors we all know (the most precious of all). Attendees stand in long lines to meet the authors and load up on books. Some seem to spend all day in author lines. As a book lover, I revel in the atmosphere where practically everyone is so weighed down with books that they can hardly walk. No wheelies are allowed unless there's a medical reason to have one, and those folks have colored wristbands to identify them. So whatever you can lug or stash somewhere, you can have. BookExpo has a huge shipping room where attendees can get a book box (at a ripoff price of $25 a box -- whew!), mark it with their names, leave it in the room on a long table with hundreds of other boxes and fill it up as they gather their books. The honor system seems to work pretty well, as the boxes and their contents can be accessed by anyone. I stood in line to ship back my one paltry box (which held probably 20 books), following a bookseller who was shipping back six. And she's a bookseller!

The author autographing is definitely a highlight. Over the years, I've met many of my heroes: Vince Flynn, Jeffery Deaver, Scott Turow, Lisa Scottoline, Lee Child, Linda Fairstein, Michael Connelly, Dominick Dunne, Scott Adams, Cathy Guisewite, and probably my favorite ever, Edna Buchanan. Well, actually Terry Anderson (the journalist held hostage for seven long years in Beirut) is probably my favorite author to meet. Shortly after he was released, he was at BookExpo signing a little excerpt booklet (which they give out if the full book isn't ready). The line to get it and meet him was one of the longest that year. He was so gracious and humble -- I was blown away at how concerned he was about the people he was meeting after everything he'd been through. I was deeply disappointed not to get the whole book then. I did buy it when it came out (in hardback too, which I try to avoid) and it was one of the most memorable books I've ever read. What a man. But I digress....

This year, one of the authors was Jim McGreevey, signing "The Confession," his book about his life in politics and as a very closeted gay man, at least until he very publicly resigned as governor of my current home state, New Jersey. Although it made national news, I thought it was more of a local story so I figured his line would be short.

Hardly! McGreevey's line stretched way long.

I was near the front and was delighted to see the ex-guv looking quite bright-mooded and healthy. He was gracious, gave plenty of time to each person and didn't seem horrified or humiliated to be there. I was disappointed as hell to just get an excerpt of the book instead of the whole thing -- it won't be published until September. McGreevey said, as if he was joking but he probably wasn't, that it's in its 9th draft.

Josh Margolin, the reporter from the Star-Ledger who covered McGreevey during his governorship, was there with a photographer. The highly energized Margolin scribbled as his photographer snapped (the pictures, not psychologically). His May 21 article delves extensively into McGreevey's book preview. Margolin covers politics so he is much more interested in the political scene from an insider's point of view than I am. I just want the juicy details of the scandal. Well, that's not totally true. I also want to know what led up to it and how he felt and what he thought about it leading up to it and since his resignation. (Hey, I got my degree in psychology, not political science.)

I asked McGreevey -- in my usual tactful way -- if in the book he told the truth and went into the real issues or if it was just a surface story. He said he definitely told the truth. Great! Then I can't wait to read it. I may read all of it, including about the crazy and dirty New Jersey politics, and not just the juicy personal parts. Every state thinks their politics are unique. I don't know that New Jersey is stranger than anywhere else -- I lived in Arizona during the Meacham years; now THAT was strange! But, back to McGreevey: I was glad to see him coming out again. Whatever I think of his politics, as a human being, I had empathy for him and his fear of being exposed as a gay man and possibly losing it all. I think he gained it all when he had to come out -- I'm sure he feels much more free and authentic than when he had to hide who he was, what he did and how he felt. I want to read his book -- I will probably even buy it in hard cover -- but I wonder if his story is finished yet. I'd like to see his second autobiography in 30 more years.