That Deadspin live chat with Sam Lipsyte which we suggested you attend yesterday? It is actually happening now! Go there and chat. And read The Ask, if you haven't already.

"You schmoes of America, rally 'round your bard! You sad sacks in sweaters, undershirts untucked and dangling below your belts! You frustrated artists, you terrified fathers: Do not be ashamed of your increasing girth, your outré sexual fantasies, your rampant neck-beard. One lonely man sings your song. His name is Sam Lipsyte, and right now he is eating a jelly doughnut." -Reviewing Sam Lipsyte's new book was obviously just a way for Awl pal Dan Kois to justify neck-beards and middle-aged belly creep in New York Magazine.

If you didn't get enough of author Sam Lipsyte when he made pork buns here on Cooking the Books, he will be appearing live, starting circa 3 p.m. at, oddly enough, insane sports website Deadspin. Deadspin editor "AJ Daulerio" is promising "stars" for all incoming "Awl commenters." (I don't know what that means!)

Sam Lipsyte's The Ask is out on March 2. I read it this weekend, in one sitting, and do heartily endorse it for all your literary needs. It will remind you in places of Joseph Heller, Money-era Martin Amis, and several other great writers, but it is the work of a wholly original voice who can plumb the depths of our sorry condition while simultaneously inducing audible cackling. It is very much a book for These Troubled Times.

Sam Lipsyte, the author of Home Land, whose new book is The Ask, and Ceridwen Morris, whose latest is From the Hips, were interviewed by Emily Gould. Cooking the Books is directed by Valerie Temple and shot and edited by Andrew Gauthier!