I have to admit that it was always entertaining to share reviews of Cather’s novels with my students. She herself was known as a “meat ax” drama critic in her college days. But your approach is much more sensible and helpful it seems.
So helpful. As a barely counted writer in the self help “agony aunt” advice category, I’m looking for the compassion or trick to survive hard parts of this awesome awful business of living. I try to remember writing my own twenty draft pages to get a pithy paragraph. I cheer them on unless it’s clearly ego and ghost written. Thank you. We need to support good hearted writing even if it’s not our genre. Cynthia author and psychotherapist.
Thank you, Cynthia, that's very kind of you and what a lovely way of putting it - it's important to support good-hearted writing, and I'm so impressed by the therapy work you do.
I remember those Auberon Waugh reviews! They could be fun, but also cruel. In particular I still recall his apoplectic reaction to the TV adaptation of his father's novel Brideshead Revisited.
The book reviews I enjoy most teach me about the subject rather than simply talk about the book. The best reviews in the London Review of Books and New York Review of Books do that superbly.
Yes, I deliberately didn’t seek out his old reviews, but was interested in what he thought. I do agree with you that the best reviews add to the cultural conversation, and need the essay-length of the LRB or NYRB.
Thanks for the great link to the full Virginia Woolf essay. She sounds so precise and modern though she wrote this in 1926. She refers ro the light or dark side in how something is written. I can see where she could have been snobbish but she seems to have a balanced perspective in this essay and seems very open to new and different perspectives. Better not to know much about Edward Albee. He was a playwright who enjoyed shocking people with the dark side of human nature and bad relationships. Bad behavior is so flagrant and overrated these days. So good that excellent behavior still exists although it always seems less celebrated the more we head into the future.
Such an interesting post, especially concerning how you approach review and let your thoughts "marinate". My pet hate are reviews that spend the entire word count relating the plot ad infinitum, which is not what I want from a review at all!
Ah, you put that so well, Deborah. A historian wrote something about recounting the plot being a diplomatic way of reviewing a book you don't like, but don't want to be rude about (because it's by a fellow historian)!
You find the most amazing quotes from Virginia Woolf. This one at the beginning unlocks Virginia Woolf as a writer, as a woman and as a very caring spiritual person. As opposed to Edward Albee who seems like a callus sophomoric secular judge of the worst kind. There are those who care and those who seemingly don't care at all and never will. The latter sort of book review is much more common than the former. Thanks for this excellent post that is extremely helpful not only in how to review but even just in some questions to ask and consider when ✍️ writing.
Many thanks for your kind words, Larry. I've put a link to rest of Woolf's essay below - I read it a while back, but it stayed with me. I have the feeling that she wasn't always kind, and could be quite a snob about people, but she certainly cared a lot about good writing and put her heart into her reviews. Albee isn't a writer I know well, and perhaps that's for the best!
"I’d rather be generous, think about what the author is trying to do, and whether or not the book succeeds on those terms."
Those are the kinds of reviews I want to read, generous and approaching the book on its own terms. And those are the kinds of book discussions I want to be in. I don't really care whether you like a book or not, I'm much more interested in how and why the book works or doesn't work. And I think much of the time as soon as I start to look more closely at the how's and why's and to wonder where the book is losing me, why the author made that choice, then I start to be a more careful reader and sometimes like the book better. Because if I assume the author isn't being random, but has a purpose and a craft, and I assume it's up to me to pay close attention, then I'm more likely to see what I missed on the first pass and appreciate the craft more.
Thanks Melanie - that's a good way of looking at it, thinking through the reasons why a book keeps our attention, or loses it. Sometimes you have to read it more than once to notice such things!
When I review books on my blog, I also try to provide something that will help, delight, or encourage the readers who will never read the book under discussion. If they take the time to read my review but have no interest in the topic, I feel a need to send them away with something good.
That's such a good way of looking at it Christina, & sharing your reading of a book allows others to feel part of the cultural conversation. Also, it makes the process of reading more fun, I feel, probably because I am asking questions and thinking about what's particularly interesting.
I like the fact that Woolf kept on reviewing long after her own novels were published & she didn't need the money... presumably it was a way she thought through the whole process of reading (and expressed it so well). Hope you'll write more on this yourself, Tash!
Wonderful post! I’ve been dragooned into a book club and I’m tempted to send this around with a note that says, “Let’s try to do this instead of saying what we liked or didn’t like, or what seemed realistic and what didn’t.” Perhaps I’ll find a more diplomatic way to make my point. You’ve inspired me.
I’ve kept trying not to join but I finally got roped in and it was clear that I’d hurt feelings if I said, nope this isn’t for me. So I have to sit there like an ancient border collie who can no longer herd the sheep but really, really wants to.
Ah, that's very kind, Elizabeth! You can see why no one wants me to join their book group (ha!). I don't have any major theories at all, just my own observations of how I like approaching the job, and pleased that the TLS and other publications pay me to do it...
So interesting to hear about your process in reviewing books. I love Messud's advice, to not ask herself the question, ‘Do I like it?’, but rather ‘What is it? And what is it trying to do?’ I may try that more when reading books as well as reviewing.
Such a good explanation, Ann. To build on your quote, I quote Auden who said in _The Dyer's Hand_, "Here is a verbal contraption. How does it work?” and this: “[. . .] What kind of guy inhabits this poem?"
My book group makes fun of me because I usually start my contribution to our discussions by asking the question "What is this book about?" Works for me.
Very interesting and informative
Thank you!
What a wonderful post. So inspiring and well observed.
Thanks Ellie. Not saying I always live up to my own standards, mind you.
I have to admit that it was always entertaining to share reviews of Cather’s novels with my students. She herself was known as a “meat ax” drama critic in her college days. But your approach is much more sensible and helpful it seems.
What a glorious description! Perhaps I’ll break out my own (vegetable) axe one of these days.
So helpful. As a barely counted writer in the self help “agony aunt” advice category, I’m looking for the compassion or trick to survive hard parts of this awesome awful business of living. I try to remember writing my own twenty draft pages to get a pithy paragraph. I cheer them on unless it’s clearly ego and ghost written. Thank you. We need to support good hearted writing even if it’s not our genre. Cynthia author and psychotherapist.
Thank you, Cynthia, that's very kind of you and what a lovely way of putting it - it's important to support good-hearted writing, and I'm so impressed by the therapy work you do.
I remember those Auberon Waugh reviews! They could be fun, but also cruel. In particular I still recall his apoplectic reaction to the TV adaptation of his father's novel Brideshead Revisited.
The book reviews I enjoy most teach me about the subject rather than simply talk about the book. The best reviews in the London Review of Books and New York Review of Books do that superbly.
Yes, I deliberately didn’t seek out his old reviews, but was interested in what he thought. I do agree with you that the best reviews add to the cultural conversation, and need the essay-length of the LRB or NYRB.
Thanks for the great link to the full Virginia Woolf essay. She sounds so precise and modern though she wrote this in 1926. She refers ro the light or dark side in how something is written. I can see where she could have been snobbish but she seems to have a balanced perspective in this essay and seems very open to new and different perspectives. Better not to know much about Edward Albee. He was a playwright who enjoyed shocking people with the dark side of human nature and bad relationships. Bad behavior is so flagrant and overrated these days. So good that excellent behavior still exists although it always seems less celebrated the more we head into the future.
Such an interesting post, especially concerning how you approach review and let your thoughts "marinate". My pet hate are reviews that spend the entire word count relating the plot ad infinitum, which is not what I want from a review at all!
Ah, you put that so well, Deborah. A historian wrote something about recounting the plot being a diplomatic way of reviewing a book you don't like, but don't want to be rude about (because it's by a fellow historian)!
Ah, perhaps that is the reason, I never considered that!
You find the most amazing quotes from Virginia Woolf. This one at the beginning unlocks Virginia Woolf as a writer, as a woman and as a very caring spiritual person. As opposed to Edward Albee who seems like a callus sophomoric secular judge of the worst kind. There are those who care and those who seemingly don't care at all and never will. The latter sort of book review is much more common than the former. Thanks for this excellent post that is extremely helpful not only in how to review but even just in some questions to ask and consider when ✍️ writing.
Many thanks for your kind words, Larry. I've put a link to rest of Woolf's essay below - I read it a while back, but it stayed with me. I have the feeling that she wasn't always kind, and could be quite a snob about people, but she certainly cared a lot about good writing and put her heart into her reviews. Albee isn't a writer I know well, and perhaps that's for the best!
https://yalereview.org/article/virginia-woolf-essay-how-should-read-book#:~:text=To%20read%20a%20book%20well,books%2C%20begin%20by%20writing%20them.
"I’d rather be generous, think about what the author is trying to do, and whether or not the book succeeds on those terms."
Those are the kinds of reviews I want to read, generous and approaching the book on its own terms. And those are the kinds of book discussions I want to be in. I don't really care whether you like a book or not, I'm much more interested in how and why the book works or doesn't work. And I think much of the time as soon as I start to look more closely at the how's and why's and to wonder where the book is losing me, why the author made that choice, then I start to be a more careful reader and sometimes like the book better. Because if I assume the author isn't being random, but has a purpose and a craft, and I assume it's up to me to pay close attention, then I'm more likely to see what I missed on the first pass and appreciate the craft more.
Thanks Melanie - that's a good way of looking at it, thinking through the reasons why a book keeps our attention, or loses it. Sometimes you have to read it more than once to notice such things!
Helpful thoughts. Thank you!
When I review books on my blog, I also try to provide something that will help, delight, or encourage the readers who will never read the book under discussion. If they take the time to read my review but have no interest in the topic, I feel a need to send them away with something good.
That's such a good way of looking at it Christina, & sharing your reading of a book allows others to feel part of the cultural conversation. Also, it makes the process of reading more fun, I feel, probably because I am asking questions and thinking about what's particularly interesting.
Fantastic post Ann - thank you! And loved that Woolf quote at the beginning.
I like the fact that Woolf kept on reviewing long after her own novels were published & she didn't need the money... presumably it was a way she thought through the whole process of reading (and expressed it so well). Hope you'll write more on this yourself, Tash!
Wonderful post! I’ve been dragooned into a book club and I’m tempted to send this around with a note that says, “Let’s try to do this instead of saying what we liked or didn’t like, or what seemed realistic and what didn’t.” Perhaps I’ll find a more diplomatic way to make my point. You’ve inspired me.
I’ve kept trying not to join but I finally got roped in and it was clear that I’d hurt feelings if I said, nope this isn’t for me. So I have to sit there like an ancient border collie who can no longer herd the sheep but really, really wants to.
That’s a great image, Elizabeth. I’m with you on those herding instincts!
Ah, that's very kind, Elizabeth! You can see why no one wants me to join their book group (ha!). I don't have any major theories at all, just my own observations of how I like approaching the job, and pleased that the TLS and other publications pay me to do it...
So interesting to hear about your process in reviewing books. I love Messud's advice, to not ask herself the question, ‘Do I like it?’, but rather ‘What is it? And what is it trying to do?’ I may try that more when reading books as well as reviewing.
Thanks Deborah. I love Messud's take on reviewing.
Such a good explanation, Ann. To build on your quote, I quote Auden who said in _The Dyer's Hand_, "Here is a verbal contraption. How does it work?” and this: “[. . .] What kind of guy inhabits this poem?"
That's a great quote from Auden, Mary, I'll add it to my personal guide (ie, my scruffy notebook).
I will write more about this marvelous post, Ann, soon. For now, a restack and a tremendous, heartfelt thank you for joining us.
Ah, thank you Mary! just a few little thoughts from me. Great to take part.
My book group makes fun of me because I usually start my contribution to our discussions by asking the question "What is this book about?" Works for me.
Me too, Liz! Always a good question to ask.