Saturday, November 19, 2016

The craft of reviewing …

… How to Write a Review - Washington Free Beacon.

While always fair—she more often damns writers with faint praise than condemns them outright—, Bowen is not afraid to drag the occasional soul over hell’s coals when needed. In a review of Upton Sinclair’s Between Two Worlds, her opening remark that Sinclair is “a prolific writer, and obviously a very impassioned one” is not intended as a compliment. Sinclair once bragged about his writing that “all I have to do is turn the spigot and the water flows,” to which Bowen responds: “It certainly does … Mr. Sinclair has no time for style: his narrative method reminds one of an incoherent person talking in a train. But one must honor his important intention—which is to save the world.”

(Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

No comments:

Post a Comment