James Wood
James Wood, literary critic extraordinaire…and not to be confused with James Woods, the actor…is one of the most feared literary critics today. The Times of London recently ran this piece about this frightening character whose bark is nowhere near his bite!
Toni Morrison “loves her own language more than she loves her own characters.” Don DeLillo spawned a culture in which everyone with a laptop and a bit of paranoia is a genius. John Updike forgot when to stop. Buried inside The Corrections was a very good novel if only Jonathan Franzen could have stopped telling us how much he knew.
In certain ways, James Wood is like the child in that fairy tale who wasn’t afraid to tell the Emperor he had no clothes. However, others may liken him to the bully on the playground. Side note: Interesting how both examples feature children, what with this being the first day of school for most of them across the country.
I got a kick out of this post. I do think he was right about The Corrections though. I didn’t like it at all.