Fitzgerald, Hitchens and Friends on Book Reviewing
In his new, consistently interesting Harper’s blog Sentences Wyatt Mason quotes F. Scott Fitzgerald telling a friend how to review The Beautiful and the Damned:
"…Tell specifically what you like about the book and don’t —-. The characters–Anthony, Gloria, Adam Patch, Maury, Bleekman, Muriel Dick, Rachael, Tana etc etc etc. Exactly whether they are good or bad, convincing or not. What you think of the style, too ornate (if so quote) good (also quote) rotten (also quote). What emotion (if any) the book gave you. What you think of its humor. What you think of its ideas. If ideas are bogus hold them up specifically and laugh at them. Is it boring or interesting. How interesting. What recent American books are more so. If you think my “Flash Back in Paradise” in Chap I is like the elevated moments of D.W. Griffith say so. Also do you think it is imitative and of whom. "
And in case we didn’t get it, here’s Marcus providing more detail:
…specificity: evaluate his characters (“convincing or not”); weigh his style (“too ornate (if so quote)”); consider the book’s freight or lack of emotion, humor, ideas (“if ideas are bogus hold them up specifically and laugh at them”); ask about its originality (“do you think it is imitative and of whom”).
Several years ago I attended a National Book Critics Circle panel discussion on the ethics of book reviewing. The question of friends reviewing friends came up. Christopher Hitchens answers with typical flair. Listen here.
