<![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review - Gawker Comments]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review - Gawker Comments]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> The fact that Sarvas actually used the word "redounds" means he deserves whatever shit reviewers can heap on him. I know, I'm mean. But seriously, that review wasn't mean at all, even by TBR's fawning standards. Reviews of the latest David Lehman-edited poetry anthologies are typically much harsher (if no less deserved).

[www.nytimes.com]
[www.nytimes.com]

Mr. B.

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> @Seeräuber Jenny: I wouldn't. The meanness of the review usually doesn't have anything at all to do with the accuracy of the review. As a reviewer myself, those things I hate the most are also those things which are the most technically and artistically awful.

Pope John Peeps II

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> This review is WAY too harsh. These quotes are taken out of context. The mixed metaphor in question reads:

"... He's been stuck on a roller coaster, carried along, mostly willingly, he admits, by the sheer momentum of what he's put into play. And even now, as he wants for the first time to stop everything he's begun, he still feels committed to keeping his balls in the air, even as he's certain now that they are destined to come down around his ears."

Nothing mixed about it; Harry is juggling on a roller coaster. The only thing that confuses me is how his balls end up around his ears. Assuming the "balls" in question are the balls he's juggling, not someone else's "literal" balls, it's hard to see how they could land at ear-level. But that's what ART does. Messes with your balls.

gawkier

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> @omit0: I always figured that Sarvas/Elegant Variation was popular because it's one of the few lit blogs that updates more than once a day, and its linkdumps are pretty great, too (not Silliman-level lit linkdumping, but pretty good for staying on top of lit stuff).

Everything I've ever read or heard about Sarvas has been bad, so I can't say the Patterson review surprises me.

Tippy and Bad Girl

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> @first2letters: I've never heard of Chuck Klosterman but I kinda hate Mark Ames now.

persephone

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> CONSPIRACY ALERT: First the swindle, now the hit job. I say he crossed someone, I'm thinking Sloane, he got drunk and called her a fat ass. Either that or he paid good money for publicity and wrote a shitty book. Probably the latter.

4Cats

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> @Elektra: I agree. Also, the excerpt of the review above is hilarious and awesome.

@first2letters: That's just too far, for me. Doree deconstructed his self-conscious, unctuous posing much more effectively with her lovely slideshow of his author photos (from 2006! Oh, how time flies...): [www.slate.com]

BeRightBack

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> That review is positively glowing compared to some of the reviews Joe Queenan has written.

whatdoyouthinkofthepie

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> @cassandra: @Elektra: The dish is eaten with a spoon.

SchmatSchmaymon

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> @cassandra:

I fear the imminent arrival of scattered weltschmerz.

Elektra

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> I didn't think the review was that horrible -- although I guess it won't make it into the author's scrapbook.

Sarvas's classy response actually makes me more likely to take a look at the book.

Seeräuber Jenny

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> Mark Ames' ad-hominem-filled Chuck Klosterman takedown in New York Press is still pretty high on the list of mean-spirited book reviews: [www.nypress.com]

One of the meaner excerpts, and a personal favorite: "Klosterman is, quite simply and almost literally, an ass. His soft, saggy face bears a disturbing resemblance to a 50-year-old man's failing, hairless back end. His tiny, red mouth is a sphincter twisting to a pained close 40 seconds after taking a brutal pounding from Peter North. To round it out, he has a mop of ironically uncombed, dyed-yellow hair and thick-rimmed glasses that look like they were placed on the ass as a frat prank, like a wig and sunglasses thrown on an old jack-o-lantern."

first2letters

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> @Elektra: I felt a mild cyclone of annoyance, accompanied by a drop in my dewpoint of exasperation.

cassandra

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> What is one big reason why Sarvas is a somewhat well-known blogger? For taking apart Steve Almond in his reviews, to the point at which Almond wrote a Salon piece about Sarvas. Sarvas appears hoisted by his own petard here (to coin a phrase).

And by the way, it doesn't seem like a mean review to me. Patterson calls "Hack!" on the novel; he doesn't go after Sarvas ad hominem stylee.

Sarvas' attempt to bounce the review's critique back onto the reviewer's personality is very lame. Patterson goes after the weak, repetitive prose of the book, primarily (quoting liberally, as Elektra has pointed out). What that tells *me* is that he cares about good writing. Elegant variation, indeed.

omit0

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> He came, he saw, he blogged.

He did not conquer.

Already boring.

NEXT!

TripMcCane

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> Norman Mailer would be glad to engage in a good pissing match.

miss_msry

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> @MattGaymon:

To say nothing of a tropical depression of depr

Oh. Wait. Never mind.

Elektra

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> @Elektra: Come on, who hasn't experienced a "tsunami of loss"? Genocides of emptiness notwithstanding.

SchmatSchmaymon

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> Quick, send him a copy of James Frey's book!

nightwatchman_flamekeeper

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> @sumac: In fairness, Steve Almons IS the worst writer in the world.

TheHonJudgeSmails

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> Patterson seems to do an awfully good job of hanging Sarvas by the rope of his own bad writing. I don't mean his *descriptions* of Sarvas's text; I very much mean his *quoting* of Sarvas's text. That may be mean, but it's scarcely unfair.

And the hooker filing her nails is unforgivable.

Elektra

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> He was just doing Michiko Kakutani's bidding. She can't write ALL the negative reviews. Gosh.

CopyofBlueboy

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> Didn't Mark Sarvas go around calling Steve Almond the worst writer in the world for awhile, a la Dale Peck and Rick Moody?

Clearly, Troy Patterson IS Steve Almond.

sumac

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> @TheHonJudgeSmails: After reading this post, I am in no way more likely to buy the Times.

jackvinyl

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> Harry, the Loose Sketch on Index Cards Taped on the Wall Above the MacBook Pro

Sarcastro

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> I suppose any press is good press. It is due only to this awesomely negative review that I am now vaguely familiar with whoever the hell Mark Sarvas is.

But, on the other hand, I'm in no way more likely to buy the book.

TheHonJudgeSmails

]]> <![CDATA[It Happens: a Totally Mean Book Review]]> I read this in the weekender, didn't think it was particularly mean-spirited. The book still piqued my interest, and would have otherwise never appeared on my radar had it not been reviewed.

nonpareil

]]>