Art

Meet James Fletcher, student, and absconder of Jonathan Franzen's glasses

Darren Atwater | Wednesday 6 October, 2010 12:40

GQ owns this story and that’s their photo of Imperial College London student James Fletcher, pictured in better times at the Serpentine Pavilion, presumably before the incident. The incident, of course, was somebody nicked Jonathan Franzen’s glasses right off his face at his book launch Monday. Somebody, Fletcher, then ran off into the Serpentine river and was searched for by Met helicopters.

Fletcher tells GQ, “I’d mentioned several times to my accomplice how much I admired Franzen’s frames and thought that they deserved to be the subject of a hostage-ransom situation. After getting a pen from the bar staff and some paper I devised a short ransom note and we vaguely mentioned to some of the guests what my intentions were. Without thinking about it for too long, I planned my escape route and then passed the ransom note along to be delivered to the victim once I’d made my move. To bide me some time, I remember shouting as I snatched the glasses off the bewildered man’s face that I was with Channel 4 doing a comedy stunt. Looking back, I’m not exactly sure what that meant or why I said it.”

What does he think of Franzen? “He is one of the most talented writers out there.”

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