In their ongoing war against cliche, the folks at Paper Cuts, the New York Times book blog, have come up with a list of the seven deadly words of book reviewing – words that aren’t bad in themselves, but which crop up with “wearying regularity” in book reviews.
And the mortal offenders are: poignant; compelling; intriguing; eschew; craft (used as a verb); muse (used as a verb); and lyrical.
In the comments section, the peanut gallery has come up with dozens more, among them “nuanced,” “subtle,” “searing,” “readable,” “masterful,” “magisterial,” “engaging,” “luminous,” “taut,” “epic,” “mordant,” “trenchant,” “poignant,” and “chthonic.”
Clearly we’re sinners, all of us.
[...] From Papercuts, via Quill. [...]
resonates… writes like an angel… peanut gallery… unprecedented…
Magisterial?
Great – now I’m blocked…
Because you were counting on magisterial?