QUILLBLOG

Can’t we all just get along?

In yet another attempt by a book reviewer to bring some light to her shadowy and sinister vocation, critic Erica Wagner writes in the Times Online of being asked, while speaking to a group of students, that primary question: “How do you tell a book is good?”

In lieu of an answer, Wagner cites the example of Philip Roth’s newest novel, Everyman. While she, along with The Times‘s Douglas Kennedy, found the novel to be brilliant, The New York Times‘s Michiko Kakutani thought the thing was a load of self-indulgent, whiny crap.

“So — who’s right?” Wagner asks. “Somebody’s got to be the decider, right? Right. But here’s the beauty of it. What’s ‘good’ for Kennedy is clearly not ‘good’ for Kakutani.” Reviewers are at the mercy of their emotional responses, she says, so readers should read reviews to be made “curious, not convinced.”

We at In Other Media think that’s a bit of a dodge. But that’s just our opinion!

Related links:
Read Erica Wagner’s piece in the Times Online

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