Most Exxxcellent Readings

Every year the Jewish Book Festival gets better. For the 2006 event, visitors can expect a constellation of literary stars. Rabbi Edwin Goldberg, Daniel Libeskind, Ruth Andrew Ellenson, Brian Fogel, and Sam Wolfson are among the luminaries who will appear at venues throughout Miami, from the University of Miami campus to the Alper JCC. Tonight comedian, radio host, and writer Harry Shearer will share his latest work of fiction, Not Enough Indians, a lighthearted novel about poverty and ethnic misappropriation.

Shearer, who is best known for his work as Mr. Burns, Smithers, and Ned Flanders on The Simpsons and his collaborations with Christopher Guest (as cocreator of This Is Spinal Tap), has no plans to make his novel into a film yet, although the characters leap off the page with cinematic potential. The book is about the desperate residents of a town that seeks financial salvation through falsely claiming Indian heritage. Some might interpret Shearer’s plot as political needling, but he disagrees. “The book is social satire. The fact that it covers events in Washington lends a political element to it, but it’s really just about how goofy the modern world is,” Shearer explains in a deep voice that betrays only a trace of Smithers. “I want readers to be entertained; I want them to laugh.” The strange story line provides rich comedic mulch for Shearer, who will read at 7:00 at the Alper JCC.
Sun., Nov. 5