Saturday, February 02, 2013
The Anti-Book List (Redhead & MacLeish)
Brian Redhead and Kenneth McLeish, eds. The Anti-Booklist. (1981) A collection of short essays attacking the reputations of certain books (and their authors.) Witty and well read. Most of the criticisms of the classic, well-known, or merely popular books rest on moral grounds and/or simply bad writing. This book reminds us not so much that even good writers write bad books, but that we often value books for the wrong reasons. The other point this book makes, albeit unintentionally: it demonstrates that much of what we think of as literary judgement, positive or negative, consists of little more than following the current fashions. Many of this book's targets no longer loom large enough in the literary world to merit this much attention (eg, Evelyn Waugh.) Nothing fades as fast as a best-seller’s popularity. A quick read, but once is enough. **½ (2001)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Scams (Lapham's Quarterly 8-02, Swindle & Fraud)
Lapham’s Quarterly 8-02: Swindle & Fraud (2015). An entertaining read, and for that reason possibly a misleading one. It’s fun to read a...
-
John Cunningham. The Tin Star (Collier’s, December 4, 1947) The short story adapted for High Noon . As often happens, the movie retains v...
-
Today we remember those whom we sent into war on our behalf, and who gave everything they had. They gave their lives. I want to think ab...
-
Noel Coward The Complete Short Stories (1985) Coward was a very clever writer. All of these stories are worth reading, but few stick ...
No comments:
Post a Comment