William T. Vollmann: “It is only my admiration for ‘Jarhead’ that impels me to express my disappointment in ‘Exit A’ so bluntly.”
© 2007, Edward Champion. All rights reserved.
William T. Vollmann: “It is only my admiration for ‘Jarhead’ that impels me to express my disappointment in ‘Exit A’ so bluntly.”
© 2007, Edward Champion. All rights reserved.
All is not lost. The last sentence can be truncated to produce a nice book jacket blurb:
” true greatness”
–NYT
Ouch!
See the debate about the review on Metaxucafe. The review could have been worse, but the real question should be: why review the book to begin with, if Vollman did not like it? Should not the column inches have been devoted to something readers should seek out? The new Swofford book has not the latest in a long line of fiction from the guy, it’s his first novel, so no one had to be “warned”. Here some authors are terrific and toil forever with no recognition on their chapbooks–should not review space go to them?
Of course, as has been noted elsewhere, The Times review is not noted for its love of fiction, or recognizing “underground” or non-mainstream authors.
probably because the times assigned vollman that book to review. vollman would get exposure and money if he reviewed it. maybe they assigned it and he didn’t have a choice, like, ‘i want to do another book,’ i don’t know, is that how it works?