The one thing L.A. novelist Mona Simpson does — and how she does it so well
When I contact Mona Simpson about setting up an interview timed to the publication of her new novel, "Commitment," she replies in what can only be described as an extraordinary way.
She suggests we meet in Glendale, not far from where I live and very far from her Westside home.
Simpson, whose 1986 debut novel, "Anywhere but Here," launched both a notable career and a refreshingly clear-eyed way of writing about life in Los Angeles, also had a faculty meeting on the day in question at UCLA, where she has taught creative writing for almost 25 yeas.
But she has a favorite restaurant in Glendale, Zhengyalov Hatz, which she assumes I will know. I do not. So when I arrive, Simpson explains: Zhengyalov Hatz serves only one thing.
The eponymous dish consists of Armenian flatbread wrapped around a bright green filling made up of 15 types of minced herbs and greens. It is fresh and
