Face to Face with 'The Other Shulman'

By Liane Hansen

Published August 13, 2005 at 11:00 PM CDT

Alan Zweibel's first novel has a weighty subtext... sort of.

The protagonist of The Other Shulman figures he's been gaining and losing the same 35 pounds since high school. And if he added up all that weight, he's really lost an entire person. The novel's oddball premise is that Shulman, a chubby, middle-aged stationery store owner from New Jersey, actually encounters the other Shulman.

The comic mind behind the book is Alan Zweibel, one of the original writers for Saturday Night Live. He also co-created and produced It's Garry Shandling's Show and collaborated with Billy Crystal on his Tony-winning show 700 Sundays. Zweibel tells Liane Hansen about writing his first novel.

Liane Hansen

Liane Hansen has been the host of NPR's award-winning Weekend Edition Sunday for 20 years. She brings to her position an extensive background in broadcast journalism, including work as a radio producer, reporter, and on-air host at both the local and national level. The program has covered such breaking news stories as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the capture of Saddam Hussein, the deaths of Princess Diana and John F. Kennedy, Jr., and the Columbia shuttle tragedy. In 2004, Liane was granted an exclusive interview with former weapons inspector David Kay prior to his report on the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The show also won the James Beard award for best radio program on food for a report on SPAM.