David Shields Talk at Hunter College was a Collage of Critique, Comedy and Social Commentary

David Shields (b Amer 1956) is a writer of novels, essays and creative non-fiction.  His prolific body of works include "The Thing About Life is that One Day You'll be Dead" the NYTimes Best Non-Fiction Pick ('08) and "Black Planet - Racing Race During the NBA season" given the Nat'l Book Critic Circle Award ('99).  The literary event at Hunter College with Shields as guest speaker was an enigmatic & entertaining evening of Shields' sharing of quotes, questions and comments concerning our current political crisis with Trump at its core.  The "reading" felt like an intimate salon event. Shields' persona seemed a pastiche of Woody Allen, Garry Shandling and Chris Matthews; 2 parts quirky humor with 1 part serious current social commentary.  Shields took the podium with a pile of loose papers and selected random pieces to read as he rippled through his scraps.  The book Shields is currently working on he explained is somewhere in the process and how it will progress is uncertain.  The unique reading was unlike any paradigm of a writer/author that I've attended.  Mr. Shields fielding of Q&A from the audience was very thoughtful and engaging.  Mr. Shields' style of writing is a blend of cultural critique, social commentary and profound prose.  It's not truely possible to categorize Shields' writing.  Shields has written "I find it very nearly impossible to read a contemporary novel that presents itself unsell-consciously as a novel, since it's not clear to me how such a book could convey what it feels like to be alive right now."