Let's Review:

Book Reviewing as Literary Criticism

 

 Book Reviewing in America                                                

Going Negative                                                                     

Staying Positive                                                                   

In Practice                                                                            

    Matter                                                                       

    Anti-Matter                                                               

Justifying Criticism

    Motives                                                                   

    Gatekeeping                                                            

    Taking Sides                                                           

Fillips of Contempt, Wet Kisses

           —The Role of Online Criticism             

 

    "In my view, most of the debate about positive and negative reviews is misguided not only because it oversimplifies but because it proceeds according to mistaken assumptions about the objective of reviews, and of criticism in general. Reviews should not be written as a kindness to either readers or writers but as a contribution to the continued relevance and vitality of literature. While many reviews may be no more than a transitory register of unreflective opinion or superficial pronouncement (at times no more than perfunctory plot summary), others offer genuine insight into the immediate context and the aesthetic effect of the book under review, and the very best also help maintain the continuity of literature by declining to write about a new book as if it has arrived shorn of all connection to the writer's other work and to important literary history." --From "Going Negative"

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