On the Books Apr. 19: 'Big Sur' to big screen, Jennifer Egan responds to Pulitzer win, and more

French-American actor Jean-Marc Barr by starring in a film adaptation of Big Sur, joins the ranks of James Franco and Sam Riley in playing a beat writer. Published in 1962, Big Sur is the autobiographical novel of a celebrated young author who flees the literary hub of New York for a cabin on the coast of California. Josh Lucas will co-star as Cody Pomeray, a Neal Cassady-type character, and Kate Bosworth will also have a role.

Hard on the heels of winning the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Jennifer Egan tells Speakeasy how she found out about nabbing the big honor (she had to leave a restaurant) and gives advice to young female writers.

You may have heard of a pop-up restaurant, but have you ever heard of a pop-up bookstore? That’s one way to describe author Andrew Kessler’s monobookist bookstore, which is dedicated to stocking and selling one book: his own. Kudos to Kessler for getting creative in the age of diminishing traditional booksellers.

James Frey anticipates “death threats, book burnings, and bannings” in response to his upcoming book, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible, which chronicles the life of a drug-addicted, prostitute soliciting Messiah from the Bronx.

Parenthood and Gilmore Girls star Lauren Graham will write a semi-autobiographical novel You’ll Never Make It, which will center on a “struggling actress in New York City in the mid-nineties who waits tables to make ends meet,” according to a press release. The debut novel will be released by Bantam Dell. No date has been set.