more on negative reviews
Beth has a thread over at her weblog dedicated to discussion the substantive points she made. It would be great if those who really liked and admired ABSA will go over there to discuss what worked so well for them -- although at this point it looks as if the pro-ABSA folks have been silent. That's too bad, because I'd follow the discussion with great interest.
What concerns me personally is the repeated references to tone. The OED's definition:
tone: A particular style in discourse or writing, which expresses the person's sentiment or reveals his character; also spec. in literary criticism, an author's attitude to his subject matter or audience; the distinctive mood created by this. (Cf. 9.)Now, reading over Beth's review this is what I see in terms of tone: frustration, disappointment, anger. A review written for a weblog audience with a central message: once I adored these characters and these stories, and now I don't, and here, exactly, is what went wrong for me: [...]
Some people seemed surprised that I liked the review. So I'm going to explain my take on this subject overall:
I don't mind a strong tone.
If there is going to be a long discussion of the merits of a novel, I prefer that the discussion be as explicit and detailed as possible.
Thoughtful content is more important than presentation. I like a good review whether it was written for a weblog (in a more familiar way) or the NYT (in a more detached way).
There's a distinction between a review that criticizes the book, and one that criticizes the author. Beth's was the former. For an example of the latter, see my discussion of a NYT review that went way over the line in taking apart the author's life and background. I'd consider this an example of a professional negative review, well written and a discredit to the reviewer.
Women who write fiction that has anything to do with romance (and you can fill in the dozens of labels here) have to start providing honest, straight forward, thoughtful reviews that go beyond cheerleading. We are strong and smart enough to disagree with each other. There are some people out there who have been working toward this end (the Smart Bitches spring to mind), but it should be the rule rather than the exception.
Reviewer X's dislike of Novel Z should not be taken as an attack on the author. To automatically jump to that conclusion is to cut off discussion before it can start.
There you go. My take on reviews in general, on Beth's review in particular, and life as we know it.