Behold, writer friends, heres what NOT to do when youre reviewing a book (or anything else): use your platform, your PRIVILEGE as a reviewer, to review things that are not the book. In this case, Joy Williams (the critic here) leads her review of Denis Johnsons new novel with a snobbish critique of a fellow airplane passenger who had the audacity to offer an opinion. Williamss attempt to belittle the woman simply bounce back on her. Take a look at the lead: On the plane I was reading this book. “Do you like Denis Johnson?” the woman beside me asked. “Yes,” I said. “I’ve always felt he doesn’t like his characters very much,” she said. “O.K.,” I said. She had gone to a writing program, had graduated from a writing program but no longer wrote, possibly because her characters’ demand for respect and compassion became too onerous. She had become an acupuncturist and had a child. Now she and the child were coming back from Cabo San Lucas, where she had attended some sort of acupuncture conference, I think. That part was a little vague, but we didn’t talk much after the child spilled juice all over us. The book, “The Laughing Monsters,” was untouched however, immune to our discomfort — as were its characters, who were experiencing far more severe discomfort in an unpleasant and unenchanting Africa. The Laughing Monsters are some hills in the Democratic Republic of Congo, so named by a missionary before he was murdered, but they might just as well refer to the characters, the scammers and rogue spies Nair and Adriko.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:35:45 +0000