Department of Supposition

Reading Janet Maslin's book reviews bears some resemblance to dead horse-beating, mostly because the horse being flogged is wondering why she can't go back to reviewing movies, her real love (I know, she cited burnout upon hanging up her film critic cleats after 20 years with the NYT, but then she also originally turned down the book reviewing post and look how that's turned out.) But today's review of John Leake's ENTERING HADES caught my eye not because she didn't like it - most of the points she raises are pretty fair on that front - but because of this aside:

“Only the toughest and smartest cops could police a city like Los Angeles, with its giant size, ethnic complexity, large amount of crime and chronic shortage of police manpower,” Mr. Leake continues robotically. (Michael Connelly, the Los Angeles police-work aficionado,  writes admiring blurbs for many crime stories. “Entering Hades” is not one of them.)

Which tells us what, exactly? That he should have? That by not doing so he's passing silent judgment? That by mentioning the lack of blurb, Maslin's passing not-so-silent judgment? (Guess what door I'm picking.) I can think of any number of reasons for this so-called blurblessness, from not being approached to this being just another manuscript Connelly turned down on principle now that he's not giving nearly as many "admiring blurbs" as he once did. Editorializing on the book is fine; editorializing about the intentions of a writer unrelated to the book is not.

Comments

[I.J.Parker]

I'm in complete agreement on that particular comment, though I see no reason why Maslin should not otherwise be an excellent book critic. But what is very gratifying is that Connelly has cut back on the indiscriminate blurbing. I no longer take any blurbs seriously and don't give them. It's entirely too personal because it involves a good deal of fellow feeling for another writer who is struggling.

[David J. Montgomery]

Maslin's comment is absurd. Whenever critics start speculating on why an author did or didn't do something, it nearly always turns out badly.

Book reviews should be confined to discussing the book. Whatever the critic guesses at is usually not relevant.

[John Leake]

For the record, my publisher did not ask Michael Connelly to write a blurb for "Entering Hades." Terri Jentz, the author of "Strange Piece of Paradise," wrote a blurb for it.