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The NYT Book Review Is Everything Book Criticism Shouldn't Be

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The Review is famous as an arbiter of taste and quality. But the publication utterly fails to seriously engage with books and the publishing industry. The year is 2002. It is 5 a.m, Sunday, on a quiet, leafy street. The silence is broken by the sound of metal upon metal as a mailbox is opened and closed. Suddenly, a loud scream rends the air. It is followed by a deep, full-throated sobbing and the soft, raspy sound of paper being shredded. Someone somewhere has just read a review of her novel in the New York Times Book Review, and it is devastating. Someone somewhere now lies splayed in a fuzzy yellow bathrobe and pink bunny slippers, her left cheek imprinted by the grimy pavement while her right hand pounds desperately at the box, as if the action might reverse time itself. Her roommate, following the sound of her cries, has found her and is trying to get her up. The writer’s left hand clutches the now tattered remains of the review; the name “Michiko Kakutani” appears in the byline.

The NYT Book Review Is Everything Book Criticism Shouldn't Be Originally published in our magazine’s hallowed print edition 2024 May/June Details The Review is famous as an arbiter of taste and quality. But the publication utterly fails to seriously engage with books and the publishing industry. Yasmin Nair filed 08 July 2024 in Media The year is 2002. It is 5 a.m, Sunday, on a quiet, leafy street. The silence is broken by the sound of metal upon metal as a mailbox is opened and closed. Suddenly, a loud scream rends the air. It is followed by a deep, full-throated sobbing and the soft, raspy s

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