So, officially, JT Leroy isn’t JT Leroy. JT Leroy is actually a pseudonym for James Frey. Just kidding. JT Leroy is one Laura Albert, 40, a native New Yorker. As reported by the Associated Press, she came out in a story in the fall issue of the Paris Review.

That JT Leroy is a made-up person isn’t exactly news–New York magazine did some reporting on that last fall–so this isn’t the kind of announcement that prompts a gasp.

Albert invented the character in therapy and wrote as part of the therapeutic process, and she sees her work as therapeutic for readers, too:

“I’m proud of the work. JT saved my life and JT saved many other lives,” she said. “People talk about the authenticity of the books. Those are my experiences.”

And as for readers who might be upset at the hoax, well:

When asked if she felt any shame about misleading people, she replied: “I bleed, but it’s a different kind of shame… If knowing that I’m 15 years older than (LeRoy) devalues the work, then I’m sorry they feel that way.” 

In my mind, there are all sorts of valid reasons for a writer to use a pseudonym, and there’s a rich literary tradition of doing just that. But when a writer creates a fake writer, going so far as to employ disguises, stand-ins, and lies about why the author can’t read his own work in public, that’s not writing, that’s theater.

I filed my reviews for Baghdad Burning and Mishima’s Sword this morning. I’m now reading Robert Stone’s Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties (HarperCollins). Note the brooding picture of Stone in the left-hand column–I wanted to use a book jacket but I couldn’t find one. Frankly, I like the photo better.

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Michael Laser spent four years writing his novel Dark and Light: A Love Story. He received two reviews, both of them negative. “I’m confused,” he writes, “about my book, and about literary judgment in general.” He explored his feelings on Salon.com (”Kirkus Shrugged“).

Right now, I just want an intelligent review that will second my good opinion of my novel–because, to be honest, my confidence in the book has risen and fallen like a lifeboat on the waves, depending on what people have said about it. Is the book great, or is it garbage?

When you’re the author, you just can’t know.

First of all, I feel for the guy, but an author’s effort is one thing that I can’t take into account when I’m reviewing a book. Some great books are written in one year and some really crap books take ten years to write. More importantly, an author’s effort doesn’t matter to the reader. Cruel as this sounds, I don’t want to think about the writer as a human being at all. I do know how hard it is, but there’s no room for pity in reviewing. There are tens and tens of thousands of books published every year in the U.S. alone, and the average reader might read a dozen. The most diligent reader might read a hundred. And with the number of books pouring in our doors, we don’t have time to vacillate. We have to trust our guts and single out the books we know are worth readers’ limited time.

Laser should trust his gut, too. Where I sit, I have a pretty good view of the publishing industry’s brutality. Most books don’t get reviewed at all, and most of those that do don’t get shortlisted for anything. Given the amount of the time it takes to write a book versus the amount of time it’s likely to spend in the public eye, writers had better be satisfied with the act of writing itself. Anything else is, as they say back home, gravy.

I know that’s not easy. Writing has always been a contradictory avocation. It requires countless hours of solitary work. And while publishing is a means of performance, both the writer and the reader experience the work alone. So, unlike actors, who know their work is only about an audience, writers often wonder whether they’re doing it for themselves or for other people. The best advice I can offer is to make it fun and/or fulfilling for yourself and count yourself lucky if other people feel the same way, too. And bear in mind that people like me review books because we love books. Every time we start reading a book, we’re rooting for you to succeed.

(I like how I’m now soulfully writing directly to Laser.)

Booklist doesn’t have the same reputation for stinging reviews as Kirkus and sometimes Publishers Weekly. In fact, we’re sometimes mistakenly thought of as being cheerleaders, because the great majority of our reviews are positive. It’s not because we’re brave enough to sign our reviews, it’s because we’re a recommend-only journal. If we can’t find something to recommend about a book, we don’t review it. (We do give qualified recommendations, and we will review certain high-demand books regardless of quality.)

So why didn’t Booklist review Dark and Light? I checked our database, and Laser can take some comfort in the fact that it wasn’t assigned for review and then rejected. Though it was considered, it wasn’t assigned at all. With so many books coming in the door, sometimes the hard choices get made early.

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So timeliness isn’t my strong suit. Yesterday I meant to link to an item posted on Bookslut the day before. And I forgot. Anyway, Jessa Crispin linked to a Family News in Focus (a Web site published by Focus on the Family) article about Banned Books Week. Click here to read the article, then click here to find out which part of the article was Crispin’s favorite.

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From the Guardian Unlimited:

Haruki Murakami has won the second Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award for Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, his third collection of short stories to be published in English.

The €35,000 (£23,000) prize, which is awarded to new collections published in English during the last 12 months, is the world’s richest short story prize.

Most short-story writers, by the way, are compensated with two free copies of the journal in which the story was published. But sometimes they get one copy.

While I observed the start of Banned Books Week by eating two donuts and watching my colleagues take part in a banned-books quiz, other people were doing much more productive things. (For example, organizing Banned Books Week.)

Booklist reviewer Frank Sennett, who spared no cost in building a spacious walk-in closet to accommodate the many hats he wears (novelist, nonfiction author, journalist, blogger, radio host, saucier, etc.), also happens to be the editor of Curriculum Review. It was in that role that he interviewed ALA’s own Judith Krug, Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, about Banned Books Week, for CR’s inaugural podcast.

You can find a link to the podcast here.

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Well, my family leave is finally over and I’m back in the office. Spending twelve weeks at home with my second son was a moving and meaningful experience. I learned so much. For instance, I learned that every baby is different, and that some babies enjoy taking a ten-minute “looking around” break after every ounce of milk they drink. I also learned that some babies are not sold on the idea–generally accepted in most infant circles–of naps.

But now I’m among my peers again, telling them in firm tones to use an “inside voice” or to “put that back right where you found it.” (I may have mentioned that we also have a two-year-old.)

A lot has changed at Booklist since I’ve been gone. For instance, when I came in yesterday, there was a new name on my door and somebody else’s stuff in my office. It took my most of the morning to move it all out into the hall, which is why I didn’t post anything yesterday.

Anyway, it’s good to be back at work. It’s nice to have a break from changing diapers, doing laundry, and changing diapers. Also, there’s a lot less crying around here, at least once Monday’s over.

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Here are links to a selection of eye-opening passages from Riverbend’s Baghdad Burning II: More Girl Blog From Iraq, as they were first published on her blog. I’ve probably included too many, but I circled even more page numbers in the book. So many entries contained information I hadn’t known, or a viewpoint I hadn’t considered, or simply put it all together in a compelling way. If you only have time to follow one of these links, read the last entry. Maybe it’s a banal observation on my part, but realizing that we share some of the same pop culture with Baghdadis seems to illustrate our common humanity better than any platitudes could.

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Fuel Shortage . . .

Our country is going to be led by members of religious parties and tribal sheikhs–can anyone say Afghanistan?

Saturday, January 15, 2005

The Phantom Weapons . . .

We were never a threat to America . . . Congratulations, Bush–we are a threat now.

Saturday, February 12, 2005

And Life Goes On . . .

“Please dress appropriately next time you come here.” The man said to me.

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Chalabi for the Nobel Peace Prize . . .

And that is why Ahmed Chalabi deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

September 11, 2005 . . .

We didn’t have the problem of Muslim fundamentalists–that was a concern for neighbors like Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Sunday, November 6, 2005

Movies and Dreams . . .

Congratulations, Americans–not only are the hardliner Iranian clerics running the show in Iran–they are also running the show in Iraq.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Thank You for the Music . . .

I found out very recently that the interpreter killed was a good friend–Alan, of Alan’s Melody, and I’ve spent the last two days crying.

Two nights ago, I finished reading Baghdad Burning II: More Girl Blog From Iraq. I reviewed the first volume last year, and also conducted an e-mail interview of the author, Riverbend, so I was eager to find out what she has to say now.

(Because everything she writes is published first in her blog, theoretically I could have read it all long ago–but you know how it is, trying to keep up with reading a blog. I had checked in a half-dozen times, though, which gave me an interesting feeling of deja vu when I came across those posts again in the book.)

The short version is that things are not going well in Baghdad. But anyone not hiding in a cave or a secure, undisclosed location knows that.

Reviewing a book with a strong political viewpoint can be a bit tricky. If I were reviewing it for either Mother Jones or The American Conservative, I’d be free to pick it apart according to my own inclinations (which would have been carefully vetted in advance by the magazines’ editors). But I’m reviewing it for Booklist. So not only is my review a lot shorter, I have to play by a different set of rules.

Booklist reviews are about books, not politics. I’m giving my opinion on the book, not the issues. Our purpose in reviewing books is both to help librarians decide what to add to their collections and to help readers decide what to read next. And we operate on the simple assumption that they want to consider a range of viewpoints. If they don’t, that’s up to them, not us.

(Our columnists, by the way–Bill Ott and Will Manley for example–are free to express their opinions on just about anything. And boy, do they ever.)

So my job, no matter how much I laud or loathe a writer’s opinion, is to summarize the argument and judge how well that argument is made. I may not do it with a computer’s cold, clean logic, but I do my best. It’s impossible for any writer to remove his personality from the act of writing. And I know that my reviews of The Yes Men, The Corporation, and Baghdad Burning were very different from those that might have been written by the spokespeople for the WTO, Wal-Mart, or the White House.

But if I keep my focus on the book, and not on myself, I can’t go too far wrong. I’ve often discussed the basic aims of a Booklist review, and for a political book it’s not much different. What is the author trying to do? Does the author succeed? If I provide enough information about the book, it should be apparent to anyone whether they’d like it or not.

With the first Baghdad Burning, I was struck by the small, humanizing details of Riverbend’s life. In this volume, as the war drags on and life becomes even harder for her and her family, she becomes angrier, more of a polemicist. Those who oppose our invasion and occupation of Iraq will agree with much of what she says. Those who support our country’s actions will take issue with her.

But does that mean I can only recommend this book to antiwar liberals? I don’t think so. I think we shouldn’t limit our reading to writers we know we’ll agree with. When the issues involve human life, it’s even more urgent that we test our opinions. And so I think Baghdad Burning II should be required reading for every voting-age American citizen, whether they support the war in Iraq or not.

Because it’s not political to say that decisions about war shouldn’t be based only on numbers. Facts must be taken into account–and some might say that, in Iraq, they still haven’t been–but more than that, before making any decision to invade or fight or bomb, we need to consider the human factors. They’re harder to quantify and yet easier to understand. What if it was your family that lived without reliable running water? What if it was your sister who felt pressure to cover up in public because she didn’t want to risk being yelled at by strangers? What if you were in fear of your own country’s police?

Those are questions we should all ask ourselves.

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Today the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced its 2006 Fellows–or as the public prefers to call them, The Genii.

(Wait, is that the plural of genius or genie?)

The 25 recipients included some writers: David Carroll, Atul Gawande, Adrian LeBlanc, David Macaulay, Sarah Ruhl, and George Saunders.

I didn’t notice any bloggers, though, which is a bit strange. Oh well, there’s always next year.

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