So Young, So Successful

Novelist and noted hot guy Michael Chabon (The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, The Final Solution, The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay) turns 45 today. On the newly redesigned Writer’s Almanac Web site, Garrison Keillor makes a bigger deal than usual of this event. Notes about Bob Dylan and Joseph Brodsky, who also get older today, are pretty much made in passing. But the Almanac offers a fairly long write-up on Chabon. It includes these interesting tidbits:

He was just 23 when he wrote his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. He turned it in as his master’s thesis in a creative writing program. He turned it in on a Friday. On Monday he heard that his professor had sent it to an agent. The book was published the following year, in 1988. It was a big success. He was compared to Fitzgerald and John Cheever. He was asked to model clothing for The Gap. People magazine wanted to include him in its list of “50 Most Beautiful People.” He turned down both offers.

I didn’t know a lot of that, including The Gap and People stuff. And I certainly didn’t know that being included on People’s list was something one could turn down.

The rest of the write-up is extensive, and it’s here.

Curiously, the Almanac doesn’t mention that Chabon is married to writer Ayelet Waldman, best known for her “Mommy Track” mysteries, and that the couple have four children.