Reviews from Hell
A commentary by Adam Langer in The Book Standard maps out the seven deadly sins of book reviewing, with help from Michael Ondaatje, Diana Abu-Jaber, and several other peeved authors. Included in the list of “sins” is the risky gambit of challenging veracity, the fallacy of associating protagonist with author, and the sadly misdirected compliment, which praises the author while missing the point of the book. Also maligned is the just-plain-mean review. As Langer writes: “Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient and Anil’s Ghost, says that the worst review he ever received was for a stage adaptation of his book The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. ‘They stop bad meat at the border,’ the critic wrote. ‘Why not this?’”
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Click here for the full article from The Book Standard
