Short Books for the Time-Pressed | Newsweek Books

BOOKS
Traveling Man
Malcolm Jones 1/25/2008 12:00:00 AM
Book reviewers have their own peculiar nightmares, usually involving a fear of looking foolish. We are, after all, in the business of passing judgment, so it won't do if we turn out not to know what we're talking about. And people don't let you forget. There is more than one anthology of reviews that completely missed the point, and English professors with a mean streak are always trotting out Clifton Fadiman's review of "Absalom, Absalom," in which he fails utterly to see what Faulkner was trying to do. Me, I don't just feel sorry for Fadiman; I feel a bond with him when I think of the poor man hurrying to read a book that you cannot read in a hurry—and book reviewers must almost always read too quickly. It's one of the liabilities of the job. How many times have I done this? How many poor authors have I sold short? My own private nightmare is to have been one of the first people to review James Joyce's "Ulysses," and to not have realized that it is based Homer's Odyssey.
A Gas-Guzzling, Tailfin-Sporting Masterpiece
Malcolm Jones 12/1/2006 12:00:00 AM
The Curse Of Success
Barbara Kantrowitz
For a passionate reader, there's nothing more wonderful than falling in love with a new book by a previously unknown author. Because you have no expectations, you experience an exhilarating sense of discovery; the work stands on its own. So when you learn that the author is coming out with another book, you're eager to recapture that feeling. Unfortunately, you can fall in love for the first time only once. This month, best-selling authors Ann Patchett ("Bel Canto") and Alice Sebold ("The Lovely Bones") provide more evidence for that sad truth.
A LIFE IN...
Books: Mary Gordon
DON QUIXOTE SLEPT HERE
DOWNER OF A SYSTEM
David Gates