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Faint Praise: The Plight
of Book Reviewing in America by
Gail Pool University
of Missouri Press, 2007
More
than 150,000 books are published annually in the United States. Which
books are reviewed? Why? Who reviews them? Why
do so many books receive such excessive praise? A
book that explains reviewing: how it works, why it so often fails. Faint Praise The Plight of Book Reviewing in America
“Faint Praise should
be considered mandatory reading for anyone aspiring to become a book
reviewer, and is especially valuable reading for authors, publishers, academicians, and the
general reading public.”—Midwest Book Review “Everything you need
to know about book reviewing can be found in Faint Praise: The Plight of
Book Reviewing in America. It is a thoughtful and entertaining
examination of the culture of book reviewing.”—Tony Miksanek,
Letters, “The Book Room,” Chicago Sun-Times. “…Pool’s book is timely. It is also well-conceived and
well-researched. In fact, it is
difficult to imagine a more thoughtful, informative book about the work I’ve
done for nearly 40 years.”—Steve Weinberg, Boston Globe. “Everyone in the field
will applaud Pool’s passionate insistence on the importance to literary
culture of the serious, informed critique, which is increasingly endangered
and in need of such vigorous support.”--Publishers
Weekly “In the future,
freshly appointed book editors at our daily newspapers should be handed a
copy of Gail Pool’s Faint Praise: The Plight of Book Reviewing in
America. They could use it: It is
a very commonsensical, clear-headed and knowledgeable analysis of the current
state of professional book reviewing.”—Jerome
Weeks, artsjournal.com, Critical Mass, National Book Critics Circle “Faint Praise
is a thorough look at the current state of book reviewing in America…The
examples are entertaining—and revealing…Our assessment: A-: solid overview
and discussion.”—The Complete Review “Book reviewing faces
its own “silent spring,” Gail Pool warns in her new book, flashing a distress
signal over the endemic rot and habitat destruction laying waste to the field
of letters, and doing her darnedest to make people care.”—James Wolcott, New Republic “[Readers]…will quite
likely never read reviews the same way in the future as they have in the past.”—Steve Weinberg, Hartford Courant “…Everyone who blogs
about books would be well-served by reading this one book.”—My
Individual Take (On the Subject) “If you ‘re a book
reviewer (aspiring or established), or simply want to understand book
reviewing better, there’s no doubt: You must read Gail Pool’s Faint Praise: The Plight of Book
Reviewing in America.
Period.”—Erika Dreifus, Practicing Writing “Faint Praise puts
book reviews in context better than anything else I’ve read.”—Susan Thomsen, Chicken Spaghetti
(Literary Blog) “Highly recommended.”—C. M. Mayo, Madam Mayo (Writing
Blog) “Pool’s book is a clarion
call for a return to a vigorous kind of criticism, based on sound, logical
thinking and the precise use of language.”—Steven W. Beattie, That Shakespearian Rag “If you care about the
fate of book reviews…Faint Praise…is
a book you should care about.”—Michael Merschel, book
review editor, Dallas Morning News “Veteran reviewer Gail
Pool comes at the problem of the declining and frequently abysmal quality of
book reviews in America…from a
down-to-earth, nitty-gritty, practical perspective, focusing on the mechanics
of editorial decision making and reviewers’ choices, and eschewing for the
most part high-flying ruminations on ethical and philosophical abstractions,
to yield a most usable and rewarding guide to the book review business.”—Anis
Shivani, American Book Review, November/December 2008. “Pool’s analysis is as
wide-ranging as it is hard-hitting.
Faint Praise is a brave polemic, written out of a profound love
of literature, evident on every page.”—Megan Marshall, Radcliffe
Quarterly “[Pool] offers a
thoughtful and thought-provoking guide to the artistry and scholarship, not
to mention the agony and ecstasy that is part of good book reviewing…Pool’s crisp, intelligent, and witty
style moves the reader from the lonely and unrewarding depths to the lofty
heights of book reviewing.” Lawrence
Rubin, Journal of Popular Culture Faint Praise The Plight of Book Reviewing in America by Gail Pool |
How many competent critics have we in
America? Not many. The critical judgment furnishes the most
notable jargon of the literary world.
There is not a work of art worth noticing at all that does not use up,
in its critical characterization, all the adjectives of praise and dispraise…It
is probable that incompetence, flippancy, arrogance, partisanship, ill-nature,
and the pertinacious desire to attract attention will go on with their indecent
work until criticism, which has now sunk to public contempt, will fall to still
dirtier depths beneath it. Scribner’s
Monthly, IX, 626, March 1875.
In America, now…a genius may
indeed go to his grave unread, but he will hardly have gone to it unpraised.
Sweet, bland commendations fall everywhere upon the scene; a universal, if
somewhat lobotomized, accommodation reigns. A book is born into a puddle of treacle; the
brine of hostile criticism is only a memory. Everyone is found to
have ‘filled a need,’ and is to be 'thanked' for something and to be excused
for ‘minor faults in an otherwise excellent work.’ ‘A thoroughly
mature artist’ appears many times a week and often daily; many are the bringers
of those ‘messages the Free World will ignore at its peril.’ Elizabeth Hardwick, “The Decline of Book
Reviewing,” Harper’s Magazine, October 1959.
The earliest book reviews in America appeared at the end of the eighteenth
century. They have been influencing--and
frustrating--people ever since. For two
centuries, reviews have set our literary agenda, helping to determine not only
what we read but also what we think about what we read. And for two centuries,
critics-of-the-critics, often reviewers themselves, have complained that
reviews are profligate in their praise, hostile in their criticism, cravenly
noncommittal, biased, inaccurate, or dull.
By now, so many essays have been written lamenting the sorry state of
American reviewing that they comprise a minor genre. Yet no book has explored in depth the reasons
for this perennial failure or the question of how reviewing might improve.
These
are the issues I address in Faint Praise: The Plight of Book Reviewing in
America, a critique of American reviewing published by the University of
Missouri Press. More than 150,000 books
are published annually in the United States, and the number seems to be rising. At the same time, newspapers are cutting back
their book pages, and the number of book reviews is falling. More than ever, readers need guidance to
inform them about what significant books have been published and help them
decide which ones they want to read. As
a longtime book reviewer, review editor, and columnist, I’m hardly a
dispassionate observer, but I believe this guidance is best provided by the
broad, knowledgeable, disinterested commentary that only good reviewing can
offer. If our critical enterprise works so
badly that it often fails to work at all, we need to understand why.
In
eight chapters Faint Praise examines all aspects of the unruly world of
reviewing. It discusses how editors
choose a handful of books for review from the vast number that are published
and how they assign them to suitable—or unsuitable—reviewers. It analyzes the roles played by editors,
publishers, authors and readers, and appraises the lot of the reviewer, with
his measure of prestige, his dose of scorn, and his lowly pay. It explores the context of reviewing, the
traditions that have evolved in a culture with little interest in literature,
much antipathy to criticism, and a weakness for praise. It contrasts reviewing with alternative book
coverage, from Amazon to Oprah, arguing that these alternatives, whatever their
virtues, can’t substitute for good traditional reviewing, whether in print or
online. And finally it suggests how our
traditional methods of reviewing could be revised. Throughout, the book weighs the inherent difficulties
of reviewing that make certain shortcomings inevitable against the unacceptable
practices that undermine the very reasons we read--and need--reviews.
I have
written Faint Praise for a general audience of readers. Although the book has special relevance for
people in the book field, its subject
and critical viewpoint have wider appeal as well. After all, book reviews affect all
readers—even those who don’t read reviews.
In serious fiction and nonfiction, the books that are reviewed are the
ones we know about. Book clubs use
reviews in making their choices. Book
award committees use them in making their choices as well. And yet for most readers, reviewing remains
something of a mystery. Faint Praise
demystifies reviewing, offering insight into this branch of the media, with its
power to award prestige to authors, give prominence to topics, help shape
opinion and determine taste.
Table of Contents
Introduction:
The Reviewer’s Lament
Unnatural Selection
Vermin, Dogs, and Woodpeckers
The Match
Getting It Right
Private Opinions, Public Forums
Are Book Reviews Necessary?
Improving the Trade
Reviews and Commentary
Complete Review: http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/publish/poolg.htm.
Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2007/10/27/constructive_criticism_puts_book_reviewing_in_perspective/
Critical Mass, Jerome Weeks,
National Book Critics Circle: http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/2007/07/weekend-read-jerome-weeks-on-book-all.html
Texas Pages, Michael Merschel, Dallas Morning News: http://books.beloblog.com/archives/2007/08/praising_faint_praise.html
That
Shakesperian Rag, Steven Beattie: http://stevenwbeattie.com/2007/07/23/hindering-horses-and-shooting-the-wounded
Right Reading, Tom Christensen: http://www.rightreading.com/blog/2007/07/08/faint-praise/
Publishers Weekly:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6448061.html?q=faint+praise
New Republic,
James Wolcott: http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=69e34cc4-6eb7-4c69-a5a7-24681dfac7c4&p=1
The Hartford Courant,
Steve Weinberg: www.courant.com
The Arts Fuse,
Bill Marx: http://www.theartsfuse.com/?p=309
(There is also
a podcast interview on this web site: http://www.theartsfuse.com/category/literature/feed)
Chicken Spaghetti:
http://chickenspaghetti.typepad.com/chicken_spaghetti/2007/10/dont-miss-anne-.html
Midwest Book Review: This review is reprinted on the Amazon
page for Faint Praise: scroll down to “Reader Reviews”:
(http://www.amazon.com/).
American Book Review, Anis
Shivani: November/December 2008.
(Available only in print.)
Kirkus Reviews: June 1, 2007.
(Available only in print or by subscription.)
My Individual Take (On the Subject): http://individualtake.blogspot.com/2007/09/faint-praise-title-faint-praise-plight.html
Practicing Writing, Erika Dreifus:
http://practicing-writing.blogspot.com/search?q=%22Faint+Praise%22
Rain Taxi:
http://raintaxi.org/online/2007winter/pool.shtml
My Sweet Home Alameda (in Spanish):
http://sweethomealameda.blogspot.com/
NRC Handelsblad,
Elsbeth Etty (in Dutch): http://www.nrc.nl/boeken/article815316.ece/
http://klassequaboeken.blogspot.com/
One Minute Book Reviews, Janice Harayda: http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/would-it-help-if-book-critics-switched-to-decaf-review-inflation-spins-out-of-control-at-us-newspapers-and-magazines-quote-of-the-daygail-pool/
Walt Bodine Show, NPR, Kansas City: http://archive.kcur.org/kcurViewDirect.asp?PlayListID=5509
Radcliffe Quarterly,
Megan Marshall, Winter 2008: http://www.radcliffe.edu/about/quarterly/3547.aspx
Inside Higher Ed,
Scott McLemee, July 28, 2008:
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/07/23/mclemee
Journal of Popular Culture,
Lawrence Rubin: August 2008. (Available
only in print.)
Boekman
78, Lisa Kuitert, Spring 2009. (In
Dutch; available only in print.)
The Journal of Documentation, Karl
Wolf, 2009. (Available only in print,
but a copy can be found at: http://www.academici.com/blog.aspx?bid=5101)
The Twenty Best Books for Language Lovers:
http://www.onlinecollege.org/2011/09/28/the-20-best-books-for-language-lovers/
** Interviews available online: The Arts Fuse (Bill Marx),
The Marketplace of Ideas (Colin Marshall), The Book Show (Ramona Koval). An interview with Mayra Calvani is posted at: http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/06/30/135638.php
For
information about Faint Praise, please contact:
Christina Ward:
The Ward
and Balkin Agency
University of
Missouri Press: www.umsystem.edu/upress/spring2007/pool.htm