whereas gary i'd put you in the tradition of saul bell lowe and early philip roth. not just because of your preoccupation, let's say with jewish themes but because of the kind of carnivalesque exuberance and wit of your writerly voice. and i guess -- >> thank you. i'll take it. >> if we're going to put it in the russian tradition i would say gary you're probably more in the tradition of like satirical absurdist gogol nabokov, where joe with your restraint and kind of writerly precision it's more chekhov or nabokov. but one place where you do overlap despite these differences in your fiction and non-fiction is writing about immigrants and expatriates and what you might call the immigrant identity crisis. and in your debut novel, "the russian debutante's handbook," you have the character living in new york, the immigrant's immigrant expatriate's expatriate, the enduring victim of every practical joke in the late 20th century. and the characters in your books are both ex-pats, an american in dubai in your latest book "the dog." and a dutchman in the u.s. in "neverland.

jk roulg, harry potter and philip roth and martin luther king still going in the tournament in the finalou about that in a second. marie curry, dominant in the bracket. knocks off stephen hawking. and steven spielberg beats oprah winfrey, no match for marie curry. this gives you the final four in ultimate genius. this is the part where everybody can play a role. steve jobs versus lennon and mccartney martin luther king and marie curry on the other side. we are asking you to vote msnbc.com/geniusshowdown. who is a bigger genius. voting for the final four wraps up sunday. next week, we crown a champion. >> have you noticed that steve jobs creator of apple, is up against lennon mccartney? think about that apple records. >> interesting. jose. >> and lennon mccartney beats marx. >> any genius out there that can do that maybe steve jobs. >> weird. steve jobs apple, lennon mccartney. this is a conspiracy of sorts. thank you. watch steve tomorrow and sunday morning on "up" starting 8:00 a.m. follow his lead and vote. go to msnbc.com/geniusshowdown. >>> the greatest cape that captivated the count