Liesl Schillinger: WTF?
Usually I appreciate Schillinger’s reviews, which is why I was astonished to find her bringing a bunch of paper-thin gender assumptions to Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen in the NY…
Category Archives: book reviews
How to help a book review
Who knows what the owners of the Chicago Tribune have in mind for the paper’s Book Review. But they’re asking what readers want, and if we read and like it,…
Responding to the litblogging boys
Ed swipes at Jay McInerney, unfairly, I think. McInerney’s review (of Andre Dubus III’s The Garden of Last Days) was so entertaining that it made me curious about what else…
Girl trouble, Girl Factory
My review of Girl Factory by Jim Krusoe ran this past weekend in the LA Times (forgive my BEA myopia). There is more to the novel than one can responsibly…
About that Sarvas
Mark Sarvas, who is a litblog friend, has published his first novel (Harry, Revised); it was reviewed in Sunday’s New York Times. Gawker characterized the review as “extraordinarily mean-spirited,” and…
Snap judgments
Racial politics in Pittsburgh, from the MFA perspective. It’s like it’s the 70s. Or the 50s. Or maybe even the 30s. Jane Smiley on Jennifer Weiner’ Certain Girls. She condescends…
To ultimately blog
Today’s LA Times runs my review of Ultimate Blogs: Masterworks from the Wide Web. The book, edited by Sarah Boxer, can be thought of as an anthology of great web…
100 Notable
The New York Times has printed 100 Notable Books for 2007. I’ve read 5, including Ian MacEwan’s slender On Chesil Beach, the hefty Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson, and…
In good company
On the fair west coast, the LA Times runs my review of The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta today. The New York Times is all over this book, with a…
Reviewing the crisis in book reviewing
What do you get when you put Steve Wasserman, Mark Sarvas, Peter Osnos, Elizabeth Sifton (FSG) and Carmin Romano on a panel, moderated by Evan Cornog? The discussion began by…
