Edward Champion's Return of the Reluctant

Part 3

Here are Keller's basic points from the Book Babes interview:

• Contemporary fiction has deserved more column inches than it deserves.
• The most compelling ideas tend to be in the non-fiction world.
• "To be honest, there's too much [fictional] shit. Most of the things we praise aren't very good."
• The Times' tastes are running towards commercial fiction, specifically as eked out to Janet Maslin.
• Book reviews are written as a consumer service, but they should also be written for people who don't have any intention of buying the book.
• The next book from an established author like John Updike or Zadie Smith will be reviewed.

We can conclude that Keller definitely wants to favor non-fiction. He wants to emphasize the review more than the book, which means that the new NYTBR will be in an entertainment format rather than a scholarly one. This may explain the odd tone of Laura Miller's columns, which I've repeatedly chided for being too simplistic, with strange analogies to films and television, rather than any relation the book world, almost as if Miller believes she's writing for a bunch of suburban yokels.