A review -- this time a not too kindly one -- of Passenger Flight in the Montreal Review of Books.
If I should take issue with it -- perhaps best not to bother -- it's hard to believe this reviewer gave the book more than a cursory read. Reducing my inspiration to Charles Baudelaire (with some employment of a “Gertrude Stein solution”) is, well, reductive, and his choice of “Edmonton” as coming closest to B’s “splenetic urban tone” is even getting B. wrong. The review format --it was one of five books reviewed in a column, and the MRB has strict word limits -- lends itself, however, to short shrift.
Click on the label below for more favourable reviews.
5 comments:
Hey Brian,
Here we go again with Montreal turning on its writers, and the MRB in particular. This tabloid is an advertising medium for Quebec publishers, nothing more, but it has pretensions of being a critical review. And shame on these people for not seeing that their job is one thing only, and that is to promote English Quebec books. This is a fairly simple concept and yet it eludes the MRB. Their job is to promote books and get the public to go out and buy a copy and read it and generate some interst in what we write. This, too, is a fairly simple concept. A bad review does no one any service, not the MRB, not the author of the book, and not the press publishing the book. Maybe the reviewer gets an ego lift by slamming someone's book... I really don't know. There should be no bad reviews in the MRB, it is, again, an advertising medium. Other journals can give negative reviews, but the job of the MRB is to promote English Quebec books, to help sell these books, and as a by-product of this to help foster a literary community in English Montreal. If a reviewer doesn't like a book he's been asked to review, he can always pass on it. So, Brian, I am sorry that the one tabloid that should have given you a glowing review preferred to give you otherwise. I've brought this to the attention of the MRB before, several years ago, and never heard from them. I pick up the MRB when I see it but I am never really excited about it, I always wonder what poor SOB are they going to slam now, and what a wasted opportunity it is to be negative when they could be positive. Now you know.
Stephen Morrissey
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for your support, and I agree with the gist of what you write about positive vs. negative reviews. However, I write too for the MRB (see the link above this one), and if they asked me to write advertising copy, I wouldn't do it -- or read it. Advertising lacks credibility. We read for for engagement, balance and insight, and if a book has shortcomings, it's a reviewer's right to point some of them out. My problem with this review is its lack of insight, or even scope for insight. I didn't want to seem too indignant, but it seems to me this reviewer's choice of "Edmonton" was rhetorical -- to usher in the cheapshot at the end. (He didn't even get "potholes" right: compare with the review in the Winnipeg Uptowner.) Reviews that slam books reflect at least as much on the reviewer as the book itself -- and generally are the product of uncareful reading. If I have a strong hunch I won't enjoy a book I've been asked to review -- I usually sample the author's work online, if I haven't read it before -- I pass on it too.
Actually I should acknowledge that the review said some positive and I'd say insightful things about "Casements"...
Hey Brian,
No one is saying any reviewer should write advertising copy, but I am specifically addressing the Montreal Review of Books which is the tabloid of the QWF and is meant to PR books, not slam them. We're not talinf Canadian Literature or Antigonish Review or some other poetry magazine that runs reviews.We're talking abut the MRB, a give away tabloid meant to interest people in English Quebec books. So, not worry about your integrity as a reviewer, but if you write for this tabloid you should be told in advance just what the objective really is, it is to sell books, or should. Much of the MRB is excellent, beautifully produced, but the intention of the MRB is/or should be, to sell books, no to slam your book and lose you sales. Now you know.
Stephen Morrissey
Hi Stephen,
I've been out of town (and away from the internet) the last few days; shortly after replying to your first comment, though, I clearly saw your point. The MRB is published by the AELAQ, whose raison d'etre reads (and I quote in full from its site):
The Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec (Association des editeurs de langue anglaise du Quebec) represents a lively and proud community. Members include:
a university press
trade and literary presses
children's educational publishers
We promote the wonderful books published in English in Quebec. Across Quebec, we act as liasion with readers, government and organizations about the publishing world. The Montreal Review of Books (see access button on the left) gives a clear voice to Quebec's literary community.
Doesn't exactly jibe with reviews that would turn people off books by Quebec writers.
Interesting, I was never informed about this when asked to write for the MRB.
By the way, as far as I can see, the AELAQ is not under the umbrella of the QWF or vise-versa, although they share the same office.
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