THE BELLES LETTRES PAPERS

by Charles Simmons ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 17, 1987

Simmons (Powdered Eggs, Wrinkles) throws one in, low and very hard, in this quite funny dissecting of the goings-on behind the good gray front of Belles Lettres, a review journal not unlike the one where Simmons toiled for many years himself as an editor, The New York Times Book Review. All characters are given inkhorn-cartoon names (Frank Page, the narrator; Xavier Deckle; Barry Vellum; Jonathan Margin; Ben Boards); and the general aim of the darts is the utter incompetence and gratuitousness that goes under the term ""editorial judgment"": what's reviewed and what isn't run on dangerously parallel tracks, so that even Belles Lettres staff can't say why each issue contains what it does. There's also, needless to say, a lot of literary pork-barreling going on--apotheosized when the magazine, spurred on to be zippier by its publisher, decides to run a list of the 25 greatest American writers. The various differing draft lists will tickle anyone in the know; the whole chapter is entitled ""Who the Fuck is Harold Brodkey?"" Tasty and smarmy razzmatazz aside, though, Simmons' substantial talent as a novelist comes into play in describing the office-politics revolt of the magazine's staff against a new lowbrow editor-in-chief. Brilliant tactics, piquant dialogue, a clutch of phony Shakespeare sonnets, and dry-point characterizations--all you regret is that there isn't more. In-group fun--but also a good fiction-writer making it look awfully easy.

Pub Date: May 17, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1987

Categories: FICTION