Everyone's a Critic (Judith Arnold)

(Anne Stuart’s away at Disney World—she’s probably spinning in a giant teacup as I write this—and she asked me to fill in for her. As always, I’m delighted to be here at StoryBroads.)

In a recent blog, a book critic named Chauncey Mabe, who writes for the Sun-Sentinel in Florida, took me to task for a review I wrote on the WritersareReaders website:
www.writersarereaders.com

Actually, he was attacking the entire website, which was established by novelist Katherine Stone as a place for writers to post reviews of recent books they’ve read. Mr. Mabe complained that the reviews dealt mainly with popular novels and were written by popular novelists (gawd, how appalling!) and that the reviews weren’t very critical. He applauded only one review, calling it “a beautiful example of the ‘faint praise’ review.” In other words, it was negative. The rest of the reviews he sampled at the website were too positive to be taken seriously, even though he took them seriously enough to devote an entire blog post to castigating us reviewers for…what? Saying nice things about books we like?

(He singled me out for what he called my “relenteless self-referentialism,” because I began a review by mentioning that I’d been introduced to the work of that particular author—Laura Lippman—through my book club and had been eager to read more of her novels. Shame on me! What was I thinking?)

When I accepted Katherine’s invitation to participate in WritersareReaders, I established a rule for myself: I would post only positive reviews. One reason is karma: I’ve been on the receiving end of a few nasty reviews in my life, and it ain’t fun. I don’t want to inflict that sort of unpleasantness on a fellow author, especially if it’s not necessary. And in this situation, it’s not. I’m not being paid or assigned specific books to review. If I read a book I don’t like, I don’t have to post a review of it.

The other reason I decided to post only positive reviews is that people are reading too few books as it is. Why should I say, “Don’t read that book. It sucks.” Doesn’t it make more sense to say, “Read this book! It’s wonderful!” I want to encourage people to read more, not less.

Of course bad books get published, and sometimes I get stuck reading them. However, as long as I get to choose which books I wish to write about, I don’t see the the point of ranting publicly about how bad a book is.

Professional book critics rant publicly about bad books all the time. Unlike me, they’re obligated to review whatever books their bosses assign them. Maybe they resent having to read and then write about books they loathed, and they can ease that resentment by spewing bile—or “faint praise”—about the book in a public forum.

But I think their indulgence in negativity is more complex than that. Even in the most laudatory reviews, most critics include at least one negative remark (usually in the final quarter of the review. Watch for those digs when you read a complimentary review. You’ll probably find them somewhere near the end.)

Why do professional book critics value negative reviews more highly than positive reviews? Maybe they think it gives them literary cred. Maybe they fear they’d be accused of lacking objectivity if they published only positive reviews.

Or maybe it’s a touch of schadenfreude—that base human impulse that causes us to experience pleasure at another person’s suffering. Maybe reviewers think: This author has done something many people dream of but few accomplish. She’s created a universe, she’s brought that universe to life through words, she’s found a publisher willing to pay her for her effort, and now she’s sharing her vision with others. She needs to be knocked down a peg.

So we have a world in which, far too often, critics say, “Don’t read that book. It sucks.” And potential readers are persuaded that a large number of books aren’t good, and they veer away from the bookstore and spend their entertainment dollars on a movie instead, and fewer books wind up being purchased, and fewer wind up being published, and not just authors but also book critics wind up out of business.

I prefer my world, in which I get to say about the books I love, “Read this book! It’s wonderful!”