Do you pause on your way to the trash barrel, as you start supposing all the alternate futures in which your trash will suddenly be your treasure? Are you re-assured by the published pictures of some genius’ office in which every surface is piled high with papers and books? (The latest was the office of William F. Buckley, Jr.) By now, you have figured out that I am a certified “pack rat.”
Recently, a kindred soul shared with me the October 6, 1996 issue of The New York Times Book Review- 100 Years edition. In the midst of the Westport Library 100 Years celebration, a look back at the world of book reviewing is appropriate. The only specific reference to the Library birth year of 1908 was in the Oops! column- a collection of comments that turned out to be not too prescient.
From July 18, 1908: on Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery:
“The author’s probable intention was to exhibit a unique development in this little asylum waif, but there is no real difference between the girl at the end of the story and the one at the beginning of it. All the other characters in the book are human enough.”
Other reviewers through the years revealed some astute assessments of newly-published books:
1903: The Soul of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois
“…very interesting to the student of negro character…”
1920: A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
“Freud realizes that psychoanalysis is still undeveloped science….”
1933: My Battle by Adolf Hitler
“It is with sadness, tinged with fear for the world’s future, that we read Hitler’s hymn of hate…”
1936: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
“She has set herself a hard mark to match with a second book, and I hope only that she will not set too soon about it.”
1949: Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
“…the most contemporary novel of this year and who knows of how many past and to come…”
1957: On the Road by Jack Kerouac
“The non sequitars of the beat generation become the author’s own plotless and themeless technique….”
1969: Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
“…the existentially quintessential form for any American-Jewish tale bearing – or baring- guilt.”
1979: The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
“The very subject … a nihilism antithetical not only to literature but to most other forms of human endeavor…”
1981: July’s People by Nadine Gordimer
“demonstrates with breathtaking clarity the tensions and complex interdependence of whites and blacks in South Africa.”
1987: The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
“Malice is a powerful spice. Too much can ruin the stew, and Mr Wolfe comes close.”
Do you think current reviewers are as far-sighted?