“The novel is about four women banding together to take on the evil dean,” said Joanne Rendell of her new book, The Professors’ Wives’ Club, an urban parable about a big bad university trying to bulldoze Greenwich Village. “I’m a professor’s wife, so the inspiration came from my life,” continued Ms. Rendell, who reads tonight at the Jefferson Market Library as part of a Women Authors of Greenwich Village series. “My son and I go to a playground on Bleecker Street and I remember thinking how awful it would be if our little shady spot was bulldozed!” Oh, to be worried about nothing but shady little spots right now! Ms. Rendell, a London transplant, then waxed poetic on her quaint, quiet hood: “Living in East Village is literally like living in a village. I’m always bumping into someone I know. … New York is not so different from London, but I was amazed at how friendly people here are. I was expecting everybody to be pushy and busy.” (You’ve just caught us all between jobs, honey.)
[An Evening With Joanne Rendell, Jefferson Market Library, 425 Avenue of the Americas, 6:30 p.m., 212-475-9585, ext. 35]
mbryan@observer.com
