My post, "The House That Jon Bought" and Hugh Crawford’s photo of the Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss’  backyard-to-be seem to be making the rounds in blogland.

I just discovered that Curbed the New York Times’ real estate blog, reprinted Hugh’s photo and an excerpt from this blog about the house having great bones and a block deep backyard.

Brownstoner, a Brooklyn real estate blog, was the first to pick up the two photos and my comments. All this attention meant that nearly 1000 people have stopped by OTBKB in the last 24 hours.

Wednesday afternoon, I got an e-mail from Meghan Clyne, a staff writer at The New York Sun: "I’m working on a story about Jonathan Safran Foer and his new house, and I read your blog about it," she wrote. "I’m wondering whether we could talk by phone. Could you give me a call as soon as you get a chance? I’d really appreciate it. Thanks much, and look forward to talking with you soon."

Meghan and I finally spoke Wednesday evening by cell phone.  "You’ve been there," she said. "is it, like, a really huge house?" I explained that I’d seen it many years ago on a house tour and that I didn’t have a good recollection of the layout but I did remember that it was a big, wide house. More like a mansion than a typical brownstone. 

Judging by her questions, Clyne seemed  to be working a very specific angle for her story. She wanted to know what the Park Slope literati was thinking about Jonathan and Nicole’s purchase. "Are the writers of Park Slope angry and/or envious that this young writer has the money to buy this big house?" she asked (I am paraphrasing here as I wasn’t taking notes).

Truth is, I really have no idea how the other writers of Park Slope feel about the Foer/Krauss purchase. I heard a non-writer today say, "What do they need with such a big house?" But I haven’t actually talked to any writers about it.

But I’m sure envy is a factor. Envy makes this city go round. And writers can be an envious lot. But that wasn’t really my beef with the whole thing. Personally I’m not that high and mighty about the art and commerce thing. I don’t believe that true artists have to be starving in garrets.

But a part of me feels  bad (but not that bad) that these two serious artists are going to be known as the couple who spent $6.75 million on a house in Park Slope. The timing seems really odd: they both have new novels out AND they decide to buy this mega house. Plus Nicole’s publicity photo is way too sexy, her blouse way too low.

I’d fire their publicist. It’s too much at once. If it were me, I’d want people to focus on my literary accomplishments and not how much money my in-laws have or how much Jonathan has stocked away from his bestsellerdom or how gorgeous Nicole is.ou thi

Could it all be a marketing ploy?

God knows, it’ll probably sell books. And in this day and age, that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?  The hokey pokey that is.

I did tell Clyne that their reputations as serious writers may get blurred a little bit by this media frenzy. Clyne seemed excited when I said that. "You think their reputations are going to be blurred?" she repeated. It was probably the only thing I’d said that meshed with her story.

I hastened to add that I think Nicole Krauss is a really talented writer and that the excerpt from her new novel, "The History of Love," published  in the New Yorker last year was absolutely spellbinding. Jonathan’s "Everything is Illuminated" was also a powerful work (I haven’t read the new one). Not only are they a real estate power couple, but they’ve got bucket loads of talent, too.

For me, what’s irritiating about the price tag on that house is that it epitomizes the state of real estate in Brooklyn right now. I’m probably not the only one who feels completely marginalized by what’s going on out here; the sense that this is becoming a rich person’s neighborhood. I will never be able to buy a house and that was always my dream. Being priced out of your own community feels very lonely and very sad.

It seems to me that Brooklyn has moved beyond gentrification into the realm of big-money development (and possibly corruption). Just look at the condos on Fourth Avenue and everywhere else, the coming Whole Foods, Ikea, the Atlantic Terminal Mall, the proposed stadium and on and on. It’s all about money and politics now. Maybe it always was.

Space is power in this city. Most of us are crammed into too-small apartments. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was jealous of all that space Jonathan and Nicole are getting.  And I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was jealous of all the acclaim and money they’re receiving for their work. It’s a writers dream to be well-reviewed, read by the public AND paid the big bucks for what you do.

And to have a big, big house to do it in: that’s making it in my book.   

From the sidelines, we gawk, we gossip, we kvetch. Our ambition is fueled by envy. Our satisfaction mitigated by the desire for more. And then we take the moral high ground when somebody actually makes it to the top and gets the perks we want.

That’s the way it is in this town. At every level, I might add. At every level.