Monday Scramble: No Bad Reviews
An advance copy of The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, by Allison Hoover Bartlett, was sent to the editor by a publicist. It was perhaps the fifth book that he has received in that way since we began keeping The Daily Blague — and it was easily the tenth offer. He tries not to ask for books that he won’t like, not because he feels obliged to publicists but because he doesn’t see the sense in writing more than a few lines about things that he doesn’t like. Happily, he was not wrong about The Man Who Loved Books Too Much. As a rule, we steer clear of books about books, but Allison Hoover Bartlett’s adventures with a non-violent sociopath make for a tale that we found both arresting and very funny.
We thought about the “no bad reviews” thing all last week, as thousands cheered (or so it seemed) for Deborah Eisenberg, new winner of a McArthur grant. We don’t begrudge Ms Eisenberg the prize — except perhaps her popularity with many people who matter, which depresses us.
The editor sat down to write about “Temporary,” the New Yorker story by Marisa Silver, with indistinct admiration but some uncertainty about what to make of the ending. As he wrote, however, focusing on the title, everything fell into place, especially the ending. There are people who believe that you ought to write about what you know. We believe that you ought to write about what you want to know. Not that big a difference, really.
The page on Guillermo Arriaga’s The Burning Plain fulfills the “more anon” promises made in this Dear Diary entry, posted last Thursday. This week’s Home Theatre choice (Peter Webber’s Girl With a Pearl Earring) was motivated, of course, by the Milkmaid show at the Museum.
Finally — the only page that was not completed on Friday — this week’s Book Review review.