The Curator: books the critics got wrong

or, critical taste ambivalence. Plus the Booker and Obama lists, podcast recs, and an end of summer playlist.

I came across this article from The Atlantic, “Seven Books the Critics Were Wrong About” and it sent me on a deep dive journey to the depths of hate reviews. Now, I like a little razzle-dazzle here and there in my book discussions, but this is a true study of what happens when keeping it real goes wrong. The haters cannot keep me from recommending three of my all-time favorite novels.

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

One of the novels included in The Atlantic article that got the anti-hate juices flowing. The Guardian Reviewer argues the “hero is a bit of an idiot,” the characters sound “comically dull,” and are robotically emphatic because of a reliance on italics for emphasis. [As a fellow Italics abuser, I take umbrage with that complaint!] Night Film is a post-modern take on the traditional detective story. It’s about a disgraced journalist named Scott McGrath who sets out to find the missing daughter of famed reclusive horror director Stanislas Cordova. Have you ever read a hardboiled detective mystery, Mr. Reviewer? Stylized is the point! The dialogue is purposefully just off-center from realistic. The novel also includes a mixed-media parade of newspaper clips, message board snags, old photos, and film stills, which our Reviewer suggests Pessl is playing “games with cosmetic ‘documentary’ evidence” in the shadow of House of Leaves. I know from experience with A Visit from the Goon Squad that readers struggle with media. I think readers and reviewers alike need to lighten up and remember their roots (picture books). It is meant to be unsettling and creepy, like wading through murky water in a storm, and the visual elements only add to that atmosphere. I prefer this take by Slate¹, “it throws all caution about plausibility to the delirious Gothic winds, and it still manages to be solidly entertaining. Just because you know you’re on a rickety ghost train doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the ride.” Stop thinking so hard my man.

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

Coming across my first negative review of a David Mitchell book was the first time that I realized I might not have infallible taste. Since I discovered his novels as a twenty-something pre-Book Socials, I have had an irrational attachment to his work, and I recognize that. But once again, I find myself asking, can’t we just have nice things?? Utopia Avenue is about a young British rock band on the verge of success as they struggle to make records, tour, perform, and keep it all together. There are metaphysical elements and nods to the Mitchell Universe. Again Mr. Guardian Reviewer #2 has something to say about this: “The problem is, of course, that Mitchell expects us all to be as delighted as he clearly is by these cameos, rather than recognising them for what they are: attempts to breathe life into a story that is both predictable and stultifying².” I found the novel to be the antithesis of predictable in its joyfulness - these characters experience real success, where the chaotic band dynamics are, for once, not the center of the action! When does that ever happen in a novel about rock and roll? The supernatural elements that require some pre-knowledge may put off some readers, but perhaps an open mind would work just as well. Hater #2 suggests Mitchell doesn’t live up to his rock n roll predecessor High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, which is a study in misery and self-pity. If that is the only kind of literature we are allowed to revel in, then I hereby submit my Reviewer Badge for destruction.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Let’s start with this opening: “This is not a book I would normally read³.” GIRL THEN STOP GIVING YOUR OPINION. Who made you mayor of judging books you already do not like? In case you are living under a rock synopsis(😘)": Amy and Nick Dunne’s marriage is falling apart, and when Amy goes missing, Nick unravels a web of lies to try and find her. Gone Girl is the quintessential Unreliable Narrator: The First of Its Kind, Mother of Retribution, Killer of Cool Girl. Not Like Other Girls Reviewer argues that the novel is “a maniacal power fantasy that panders to female anger and fear.” She goes on about how terrible Amy is, how she is a reflection of Facebook and Twitter, which have created “a hyperartificial, hive-minded way of relating” that is “frightening to the point of sickening.” All this tells me is that Reviewer is a boomer whose distance from the 2010s cultural moment protects her from understanding exactly how Amy Dunne feels. If Amy is the “emotional terrorist,” Reviewer claims, then what does that make her weak, philandering husband, ma’am?? It is this kind of hypocritical misogynist ideals that only reinforce WHY Amy went off the deep end and why we (millennials et al) understand Amy to our core. This Reviewer is mad at the wrong person.

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And what have we learned from this exercise? Apparently, The Guardian only pays for hate reviews geeesh! Regardless, this was a wee bit fun. I may have to do a “1-star review of my favorite books” next…

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READING 📖→

• I raced through The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead this week. Honesty Corner - I dreaded facing the contents of this book. But it’s important and necessary that I do (and did) face it. I struggle to articulate where this lands for me - what to do with the simplicity but honesty of the writing, the distance between reader and characters, the unrelenting whack-a-mole game of horrible people and outcomes. How many must die horrifically so one person can survive? Do we require this distance as an assuage to our tender sentiments? It almost felt like a parable told to children - but then, would we have been able to face anything harsher??

• My library hold came in for Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar so I hustled onto it. The story didn’t hold me right away, but as soon as I settled into loving MC Cyrus, I accepted the dream sequences and breaks for poetry interspersed between a somewhat fragmented plot and switching POVs. Interesting to read this after The Bee Sting and compare the multigenerational POVs and flashback narrative structures. The Bee Sting is more successful with its compelling plot, but the (aptly) poetic language and moments of clarity make Martyr! worth the read.

• I am gathering my lists and book stacks for 🎃SPOOKY SEASON👻, my very favorite season of all time. I have a few I want to test out before I make my recs, so I will be allowing myself to start burning pumpkin candles and using the pumpkin spice cold foam, even though it's basically dead of summer here in Southern California. Cognitive dissonance requires PRACTICE!

CONSUMING 📽️🎧→

• This episode of The Rewatchables on my second favorite Wes Anderson film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, starring one of the greatest ensemble casts to date. A rewatch is in order. Get your hands off my Lobby Boy!!!

• The Evil season (and potential series) finale. One can only hope a streaming service swoops up the IP…

• This episode of the Ezra Klein Show to get to know America’s potential future step-dad.

• And my Daytime Disco playlist perfect for fighting that end-of-summer malaise.

BOOKS IN MY SHOPPING CART 🛒→

• Hum by Helen Philips - Dystopian speculative fiction MY FAVORITE. About a woman who sacrifices herself to a surveillance experiment to support her family in a collapsed near-future overrun by AI.

• The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya - a young playwright turns her father’s “fall from grace” into a play, exploring generational divides, art, and ethics. Sounds like White Lotus meets is this fucking play about us?

• To Each His Own by Leonardo Sciascia - I am deep into The New York Review of Books lately, and this one sounds like a win: “a gripping and unconventional detective story that is also an anatomy of a society founded on secrets, lies, collusion, and violence.”

BOOK NEWS & RESTACKS 📰→

• Anne Helen Petersen
  ’s week-long investigation into the University of Alabama Greek Life is one of the most compelling pieces of journalism I’ve read in a long time. Today is the finale, but you can still access the entire thing on her Substack
  Culture Study
  (Substack).

• This article on the books that try to capture the essence of shame and performance required to exist in the Age of Online is long, but the part about Sally Rooney is worth it (Substack).

• Netgalley has a list of fall and winter books to look forward to while we wait for The Millions to get their preview together. Only the Julia Armfield interests me - why do I hate books with cartoon people on them?

• The Booker Longlist was announced weeks ago, and I failed to comment, which I know keeps most of you up at night. I’ve only read James, with Wild Houses, Headshot, and Creation Lake as my next of interest. I took the quiz to find out if I can keep a guy intrigued what book from the list I should read next and received Orbital by Samantha Harvey which ok it SOUNDS interesting but having been burned by The Ministry of Time I am reticent. Go take the quiz and let me know what you got.

• AND the best part of the summer - Obama’s reading list. James, The God of the Woods, and Martyr! are excellent choices, with Ministry of Time a bit off the wall obvi. Headshot is even higher on the TBR now that it’s here and on the Booker longlist. And apparently, the non-fiction division needs an editor - I’ve never seen so many colons in one photo😵‍💫.

barackobama

A post shared by @barackobama

AND CATS 🐈‍⬛→

Minnie Baby

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LET’S CHAT 👻→

• Have you ever read a bad review of a book you love? Did you send the reviewer hate mail?

• What’s on your end-of-summer playlist, either movies or music?

• What are you reading currently, and is it any good?

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In Case You Missed It 🖤

The Curator: lessons from M. Night Shyamalan's terrible movie endings

The tragic comedy of The Bee Sting

The Curator: on becoming an author completionist

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See you around the bookshelf!

1. https://slate.com/culture/2013/09/marisha-pessls-novel-night-film-reviewed.html

2. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/19/utopia-avenue-by-david-mitchell-review-endless-prog-rock-noodling

3. https://www.bookforum.com/print/2003/gone-girl-s-sickening-worldview-12173