As summarized on Galleycat (”Called Out By Her Reviewer, A Panned Author Answers Back“), Carolyn See and Porochista Khakpour are getting into it:

One of the first bits of advice writers are given as their books make their way into the world is “don’t engage with the reviewers.” A quick glance at the letters section of the NYT Book Review on any given Sunday will show you how often that counsel is ignored, but since there’s no guarantee a newspaper will run an author’s letter - if they even have a letters section - the Internet provides another opportunity for writers to speak out when they think they’ve been badly reviewed. And when a critic frames her rejection in the form of an open letter to the author, as Carolyn See did to Porochista Khakpour in the pages of the Washington Post while reviewing Sons and Other Flammable Objects, perhaps it’s inevitable that the author responds on her blog.

I haven’t read the book, so I have no idea whether See or Khakpour is “right.” But, really, I don’t think either of them comes off very well. See takes some questionable shots, and Khakpour answers right back, with a “she started it” rationale.

The letter-to-the-author device isn’t particularly well suited to the book review, although it has its place in other departments. And, as for answering the reviewer, I don’t think it’s ever a good idea. Bad reviews hurt, but raising the profile of the review only prolongs the agony.

There are other potential complications, too: say a book reviewer pans a book, then asks his editor if he can be excused from reviewing the writer’s next offering. It’s not a good match. But then a letter arrives from the author, questioning the fairness of the review. Now the decision becomes a political one: if a different reviewer handles the next book, it looks as if the editor is caving in to the author’s complaint with a vote of no-confidence in the reviewer. If the editor trusts his reviewer’s judgment, the reviewer is then forced to review the author whose work he dislikes so much. And the writer has lost the chance to find a (possibly) more sympathetic reviewer.

Has it happened at Booklist? I’m not telling.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 2:22 pm and is filed under Books and Reviewing, I on the News, Writers and Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.