Book reviews: Making hamburgers out of the beast

May 07

Why do reviewers feel the need to kill a book and them make a meal out of it? An article in the Wall Street Journal has some thoughts on this here. According to Dale Peck, book critic and author of Hatchet Jobs, a collection of his best negative reviews, it’s because ‘mud-slinging is just more fun to read than a discussion of how stream-of-consciousness narration renders synaptic processes in prose.’

Hmmm. I will own up and confess that there is something satisfying about reading a review that savages a book or an author you detest (Dan Brown anyone?), but there is so much more to negative reviewing than just making sure a text is drawn and quartered.

I’m more inclined to agree with some of the comments on Bookninja.com – there is a difference between simply being negative and giving a critique. Blanket statements and malicious quips, though briefly entertaining, are hardly worth the paper they’re written on. A negative review should throw up the questions of why and how and what if. It can be tough but intelligently so, laying bare the reading experience and pinpointing exactly what went wrong where. Also, I think that it is important for both critics and readers to remember that a review is simply an opinion – there has to be room for disagreement and discussion. Mud-slinging limits this and is only about as useful as a cheap ‘you’re wrong I’m right’ jibe.

But if mud-slinging is your thing, have a look at www.negativereviews.org (which, needless to say, is a site dedicated to negative reviews of book, movies, TV, drinks etc).

JA

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