The views expressed in the Writer-in-Residence blogs are those held by the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Open Book: Toronto.
THE WALLFLOWER CONFESSIONS
Submitted by bstone on July 28, 2008 - 6:45am
15. What’s worse that not being reviewed?
Hoping nervously for a good review is so much easier than assessing other people’s work. I got a gig reviewing another first-time novelist’s work for a book section and God, it felt like I was trying someone for murder. What if I got it wrong? I was worried that I would be unjust, perhaps missing the whole point of the novel. However, if I was too lenient and acquitted, then a writer might go and do it again to other innocent readers.
I worked on this review for about two weeks. I thought about it. I anguished over how to say what I wanted to say in a clear, objective way. I tried to put the book into the context of others contemporary Canadian novels. I tried to be respectful, but also wanted to write honestly about what I thought.
A large newspaper that I was writing for hacked the copy up into bite sized pieces that could be read quick and easy in a lawn chair or on the bus. This resulted in some edits that I thought detracted from my argument. They also got the name of my own book wrong.
I felt violated initially. I felt misrepresented. I felt misunderstood. And then I thought, touché. How many authors have felt like the reviewer misunderstood what they were really saying? The universe has a way of distributing justice sometimes. Justice, in addition to being objective, is often subtle. You have to be paying attention to notice that you just got a slap up the side of the head.
