Dave Eggers in the flesh? The literary pied piper appears at the 92nd Street Y with 30-year-old Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Sudanese refugee Valentino Achak Deng (phew!)—the subject of Mr. Eggers’ fictional biography, What Is the What, currently sitting on our nightstand propping up six jars of face cream. And later, the Vikings at Scandinavia House screen Nordic Oscar nominees for best foreign film, including our personal favorite from Finland, A Man’s Job, which, according to press materials, takes “an interesting look behind the scenes of the world’s oldest profession—performed by a man.” Nope, not stone-cutting, people: prostitution! Family man Juha loses his job and is forced to work as a handyman for an older woman, who “is not so much interested in his carpentry skills as she is in his body.” It starts slowly (these things always do!) but eventually, “he begins to sell his body in earnest.” (Suddenly, American movies and their special effects seem very, very boring.) Speaking of desperate men: A curious institution called the Museum of American Finance stages an Inaugural Gala at its new home on Wall Street, co-chaired by heavy hitters Pete Peterson of the Blackstone Group, Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain, Bruce Wasserstein and some lesser finance types whose bonuses this year averaged a measly $600,000. Who wants dessert?
[Dave Eggers and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at the 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, 8 p.m., www.92y.org; Scandinavia Houses’ Nordic Oscar Nominees screenings, 58 Park Avenue, www.scandinaviahouse.org for schedule; Museum of American Finance Inaugural Gala, 48 Wall Street, 6:30 p.m., invite only]
