I don’t write many reviews these days. Ten years at Book World gave me my fill, and it was time to focus on on other kinds of writing. That’s been a happy decision, but I still read a lot of reviews (and write them once in a while), and I still find the push-and-pull between… Continue reading »
Archives for Lit Crit
Can Writers and Critics Get Along?
It’s been a bad week for author-critic relations. First Alice Hoffman used Twitter to get back at a reviewer who made the mistake of not entirely loving her latest novel. Then Alain de Botton went after Caleb Crain–in the comments section of Crain’s blog–for not entirely loving his latest opus in a review for the… Continue reading »
It’s Official–No More Stand-Alone Book World
The WaPo has finally announced that it will kill the stand-alone print edition of Book World and move books coverage into Outlook and Style and the arts section. No surprise there; rumors have swirled (what else do rumors do?) for weeks now. What to say? I worked at Book World a long time, and I… Continue reading »
Bolano in Academe
I have read exactly one thing by Roberto Bolano so far, and that’s the short story in the Dec. 22 issue of The New Yorker. I should probably tackle The Savage Detectives or 2666, but I don’t think I can bear to until Bolano fever dies down a little. Meanwhile, scholars have joined litbloggers in… Continue reading »
What He Said
RIP John Leonard. Lots of appreciations elsewhere to which I have nothing useful to add, except to direct you to this Nation essay from 2000, which ought to be read by all working critics and reporters and the people who edit them: I like to think of myself as having published in the New York… Continue reading »
