Gawker
books
Posts Tagged “
Michiko Kakutani
”
books
books
Who Does Jonathan Franzen Think is the "Stupidest Person in NYC"?
Why, it's Michiko Kakutani, fiction critic at the New York Times, of course! As a general rule, authors do tend to think the "stupidest people in the city" are the ones who reviewed their books negatively. (It's just one of those things.) In Franzen's case, it was her review of his memoir The Discomfort Zone that really set him off: "In the case of this book the author's self-involvement not only makes for an incredibly annoying portrait, but also funnels the narrative into a dismayingly narrow channel." Regardless of quality, it hurts more than usual when someone criticizes your memoir. It's not like saying, "I don't like your characters." It's more like, "I don't like your life." (That said, there are just some things that should not be published.) [NY Observer]
Ads for the paperback of "The Discomfort Zone," Jonathan Franzen's collection of essays, include the really mean ones. "Odious!" says Michiko Kakutani. [Papercuts]
the final chapter
'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' Reviewed And Revealed
The New York Times joins the crowd of those breaking Scholastic's embargo on revealing anything about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In a review in today's paper, book critic Michiko Kakutani limns the final volume of the Potter series, and, presumably inadvertently, reveals a major plot point. It's kind of amazing. More »
the trouble with critics
Michiko Kakutani Unabashedly Limns Again
As Galleycat recently Michiko Kakutani has been in a cheery mood of late, overusing "stunning" and "dazzling" on two novels already this month! But other bad habits seem to die considerably harder. From the second sentence of her review of Don DeLillo's Falling Man:His novels, from "Players" and "White Noise" through "Libra" and "Mao II" and the remarkable "Underworld," not only limned the surreal weirdness of the waning years of the 20th century, but somehow also managed to anticipate the shock and horror of 9/11 and its darkly unspooling aftermath.Whether or not you agree with Dennis Loy Johnson's famous defense of Michiko's limning, by this point, would it kill her to toss us an "outlined" once in a while? A "sketched?" A "delineated"? We would totally settle for a "portrayed!"
femiladyism
Leslie Bennetts: 'Times' Lady Coverage Is 'Wretched'
What do Motoko Rich, Janet Maslin and Michiko Kakutani have in common? They're all part of a sinister conspiracy against women in general and woman author Leslie Bennetts in particular. In a letter on the HuffPo, the ten-year vet of the Times takes issue with yesterday's Times article suggesting that maybe women don't want to read books about the whole working mother dilemma. She notes that her own book, The Feminine Mistake, has already moved more copies than several other titles to which it is compared and then likens herself to critically-injured New Jersey governor Jon Corzine. But wait, there's more! More »
new york times
Your Sunday 'Times' Timesaver Guide
It's going to be a warm and sunny weekend, which is a good thing considering that you're not going to be indoors reading the Sunday New York Times. If the Big Three sections (Arts, Books, Mag) are any indication, you'll quickly scan the sports scores and then head out to the park for some ultimate frisbee or whatever. So now we will helpfully describe to you, rapid-fire, what you'll be skipping over so you can sound all smart next week. You're welcome! More »
new york times
Secret Workings Of 'Times' Book Review Exposed!
In a talk at Harvard on Tuesday, Barry Gewen, an editor at the New York Times Book Review since the early 90's, revealed a steaming heap of heretofore unknown and as-of-yet unreported details about the Book Review's inner workings. The reason for his trip, he said, was to correct some misconceptions among the largely academic audience about how the Review is assembled. "We're thought to have agendas, we're thought to be out to get people," he said. "I hope by the end of this talk I'll have persuaded you that none of that is the case." More »
norman mailer
Please Beat Us With Norman Mailer's Cane
Norman Mailer has been an ancient crotchety windbag for like sixty years now, so it's gotten to the point where you really just have to admire his stamina — not to mention his flair for crafting quasi-Shakespearean, quasi-acid casualty insults. We mentioned earlier that New York Magazine had done a brilliant job of cataloguing his enemies — in anticipation of his new book, for which Michiko Kakutani is apparently already sharpening her samurai sword, they've also listed some of the barbs (literal and figurative) he's hurled at them over the years. To William Styron: "I will invite you to a fight in which I expect to stomp out of you a fat amount of your yellow and treacherous shit." On biographer P.D. Manso: ""P. D. Manso is looking for gold in the desert of his arid inner life, where lies and distortion are the only cactus juice to keep him going." We know you're great at talking smack, so we're going to open up the floodgates and see if anyone wants to try their hand at crafting a Mailerian (whatever) insult. Leave 'em in the comments, or send them to us the way you usually do. Your target can be us, Mailer, Marisha "hedge fund trophy wife hot" Pessl, or whoever. We can't wait to to read a fat amount of your yellow and treacherous shit. More »
michiko kakutani
Divining the Truth: Who Knocked Michiko Kakutani?
So, surprise of surprises, this week's Time Out has a fairly interesting feature in which New York's professional critics are judged by a panel of experts. There aren't many shocks (The New Yorker's Sasha Frere-Jones and Alex Ross are great music critics, Frank Bruni is inferior to his $25-and-Under colleague Peter Meehan, something about dance, etc.) but the gloves really come off when Times book critic Michiko Kakutani gets reviewed."Reactionary, mean-spirited. Has a permanent grudge against experiment, playfulness, subversion, perversity and complexity. Her reviews are predictable, dull, ugly, conservative, mocking and trite."Well, it's not an uncommon opinion. And she can be a little mean-spirited at times. More »
gawker explainer
Gawker Explainer: Names Sometimes in the News
Because it's Friday, and because we know you like to sound smart: More »
media bubble
• More bad news for American Media: First they lose Arnold, now Standard & Poor's drops their debt rating. And on top of that all, the CEO is still named Pecker. Heh. [NYP]
• Martha Stewart Living and two other women's mags now caught in "apocalyptic" wave of circ scandals. Fraud at Martha Stewart? No way. [Ad Age]
• Mr. Big is renovating his house. In the last week of August, that counts as news. [WWD, second item]
Media Bubble: Fielding Mellish Goes to Iraq, Sort of
• Imagine if a Woody Allen antihero was on a warfront. We'd call that Bananas. Michiko calls it War Reporting for Cowards. [NYT]• More bad news for American Media: First they lose Arnold, now Standard & Poor's drops their debt rating. And on top of that all, the CEO is still named Pecker. Heh. [NYP]
• Martha Stewart Living and two other women's mags now caught in "apocalyptic" wave of circ scandals. Fraud at Martha Stewart? No way. [Ad Age]
• Mr. Big is renovating his house. In the last week of August, that counts as news. [WWD, second item]
media bubble
• You know things are getting weird when far lefty Bob Scheer is echoing VF bobo Michael Wolff on the Plame case: Judy Miller is no hero, and the public should be more important than her sources. [LAT]
• E&P peacenik Greg Mitchell calls for newspapers to call for withdrawl from Iraq. Again. [E&P]
• The many personalities of Michiko Kakutani. [Media Mob/NYO]
Media Bubble: Lawsuits and the City
• Candace Bushnell and her Stanford Blatch-inspiring ex-manager are suing each other over money. Which seems far more like the real New York than Sex and the City ever did. [Radar]• You know things are getting weird when far lefty Bob Scheer is echoing VF bobo Michael Wolff on the Plame case: Judy Miller is no hero, and the public should be more important than her sources. [LAT]
• E&P peacenik Greg Mitchell calls for newspapers to call for withdrawl from Iraq. Again. [E&P]
• The many personalities of Michiko Kakutani. [Media Mob/NYO]
