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FAINT PRAISE

Name: FAINT PRAISE
Author: Gail Pool
ISBN: 978-0-8262-1727-1

THE PLIGHT OF BOOK REVIEWING IN AMERICA

by Gail Pool ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2007

Some well-deserved pats on the back and slaps upside the head.

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Freelance journalist and former Boston Review editor Pool (Other People’s Mail, 2000) takes the pulse of the American book-reviewing profession and finds it weakening.

Considerable research enriches her jeremiad with pertinent examples from American literary history. “How can it happen,” Pool asks, “that such a serious enterprise works so badly that it often fails to work at all?” She is unhappy about several things: long essays that deal less with the book that with its context (see: New York Review of Books), routinely positive reviews by noted writers, editors who seem unwilling to cover titles by little-known authors, reviews-for-pay, the unprofessional reviews that now proliferate on such sites as Amazon.com (a frequent target here). After laying out her case in broad strokes, the author examines more closely a number of issues, including the difficult process of selecting which books to cover and which writer to assign. She finds chaos and bias throughout as she discusses such celebrated mismatches and controversies as the contretemps between Norman Mailer and John Simon over the latter’s review of Harlot’s Ghost. She devotes a chapter to the issue of accuracy and urges critics to judge books on their own terms, not to condemn Ed McBain for failing to be Leo Tolstoy. At the end, Pool raises and answers two questions. The first—Are reviews necessary?—earns a quick, positive reply. Addressing the more complex issue of what can be done to improve reviewing, she suggests we find more sensible book-selection policies, improved means of rewarding reviewers and better ways to train editors, whose quality, she believes, is cardinal. A code of ethics would be nice, too.

Some well-deserved pats on the back and slaps upside the head.

Pub Date: July 1, 2007

ISBN: 978-0-8262-1727-1

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Univ. of Missouri

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2007

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.