What's Good with James Wood?

While I was en vacances, Nathan Whitlock's appraisal of How Fiction Works appeared in The Toronto Star. And, although it's dated 26 October, ISTM Whitlock raises several questions he answers with both grace and alacrity (attributes well worth sharing with readers who care about such "elevated" approaches to art and culture): "Literary critic James Wood, whose writing has been a regular feature in The Guardian, The New Republic, The London Review of Books and now, The New Yorker, is both loved and hated."

Admirably, Whitlock goes a long way when it comes to explaining why this may be so.