Sex on the Moon
Ben Mezrich reads from his latest book tonight
Ben Mezrich has found a pattern that works: write a book about extraordinary college kids, and then watch the book become a movie.
His most famous work, 2009’s The Accidental Billionaires, chronicles the founding of Facebook. The book was the basis for the Oscar-winning film The Social Network, despite the fact that Mezrich had no input from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Mezrich’s earlier book, Bringing Down the House, is the tale of a group of MIT students on the Blackjack Team who travel to Las Vegas. That supposedly nonfiction book raised the hackles of some critics, who questioned whether certain details had been altered, but it also was made into a film, 2008’s 21.
Mezrich’s latest novel, Sex on the Moon, has already been optioned for a film, and once again he uses a real-life situation. Just released in paperback, it’s the story of 25-year-old NASA intern Thad Roberts, who stole priceless moon rocks and later hid them under a motel mattress on which he had sex with his girlfriend—hence the provocative title. Mezrich describes the tale as “the most audacious heist story in history.” Some critics are less kind. The author acknowledges using “the technique of re-created dialogue” in his work. But the New York Times brands Mezrich a “baloney artist,” while a USA Today critic notes that he “has a credibility gap that shines through writing that’s overwrought, overstated, over-everything.”
Tonight you can find out what all the fuss is about when Mezrich reads from, and signs copies of, Sex on the Moon at Brookline Booksmith in Coolidge Corner.
The Sex on the Moon reading and signing, free and open to the public, is tonight, Monday, July 16, at 7 p.m., at Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St., Coolidge Corner, Brookline. Seating begins at 6:30 p.m. By MBTA, take the Green Line C trolley to Coolidge Corner or the B trolley to Harvard Avenue, which turns into Harvard Street.
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