There’s a quality to this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, in these perilous times, that leaves one speechless. But that makes for a very short column. The final accounting–and it is all about accounting these days–won’t come for a while. So the best handle on the show I found is stolen from a prominent journalist at last night’s still-packed Bertelsmann party (though we were assured the guest list had been trimmed by about 300 people): “So book publishing fiddles while Rome burns?” With no one knowing just how bad the wreckage of the financial crisis will be when all is said […]
