book data
49 ratings,
3.04
average rating, 12 reviews
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published
November 3rd 2005
(first published 2004)
by New Press
binding
Paperback, 240 pages
isbn
1595580271
(isbn13: 9781595580276)
description
Since the publication of Hatchet Jobs, the groves of literary criticism have echoed with the clatter of steel on wood. From heated panels at BookExpo ...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 59)
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avg 3.04
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
A nasty, boring book in which someone whose talent appears to have sputtered out years previously, attempted to gain some notoriety by taking a hatchet to the work of others.
Sour grapes much, Dale? At least Jonathan Franzen has some talent to back up his obnoxious public persona. With this author there's all the obnoxiousness and very little talent.
Sour grapes much, Dale? At least Jonathan Franzen has some talent to back up his obnoxious public persona. With this author there's all the obnoxiousness and very little talent.
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There is some truth to Peck's claim that his critics are more interested in "the possibility of a brawl" than in what he has to say about today's fiction. Reviewers say they can't fathom how the highly regarded author of the novel Now It's Time to Say Goodbye and What We Lost, the story of his father's 1950s childhood, has the audacity to vilify his colleagues. Although reviewers feel scandalized, disgusted, or fascinated by his sweeping condemnations (is Rick Moody really "the wo
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I'll never get the praise for Kurt Vonnegut or the diss on Ulysses - but besides that, this is a great book. The scandal surrounding it reminds us that many reviewers act as advertisements rather than critical and thoughtful assesments of literature. And also, David Foster Wallace probably SHOULD be fucked in the ass.
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5 comments
Read in March, 2009
Don't read this and then try to write anything, ever.
The first piece is hilarious, a long-deserved crucifixion of the unconscionably boring Sven Birkerts; but then I stopped laughing when I hit the subsequent reviews, in which he CARVES INTO Wallace, Franzen, Moody, DeLillo, et al. Oh, and Joyce. And Faulkner.
Also, for someone who's so high and mighty about English syntax, he can at times write confusingly. There are oddly murky places in the prose, in sharp contras...more
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Read in May, 2007
While it's wrong to laud a critic merely for agreeing with me, that's what I'm going to do.
Peck doesn't really assert these points so much as posit them on his way to dismember his contemporaries, but since I find them excellent literary axioms, I'll repeat them:
-James Joyce's collection Dubliners--particularly the story "The Dead"--is one of the best in the prose fiction canon, but by Ulysses he is setting a pretty poor example.
-Thomas Pynchon is u...more
Peck doesn't really assert these points so much as posit them on his way to dismember his contemporaries, but since I find them excellent literary axioms, I'll repeat them:
-James Joyce's collection Dubliners--particularly the story "The Dead"--is one of the best in the prose fiction canon, but by Ulysses he is setting a pretty poor example.
-Thomas Pynchon is u...more
I just finished reading this for the second time. For people who pay attention, Peck made a huge name for himself a few years ago when he starting swinging like crazy at writers he thought were wasting their talent, including his infamous line about Rick Moody being "the worst writer of his generation." I like him because, like James Wood, he actually cares about what's going on with books, not just getting a paycheck for writing his essay. This is one of those collections that add up ...more
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Read in May, 2008
Not only does Peck review books, providing criticism and analysis, but he criticizes critics and reviews book reviews.
Hehe.
He says nasty things about writers and reviewers. Tehe.
It's all very rousing and silly in an entertaining way. Plus it's short and small and fits in the front pocket of my brown corduroy jacket.
Hehe.
He says nasty things about writers and reviewers. Tehe.
It's all very rousing and silly in an entertaining way. Plus it's short and small and fits in the front pocket of my brown corduroy jacket.
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Dale Peck has not really taught me anything about literature, but could write a damn monograph for OUP about the value of self-promoting bitchery. Bonus points: "David Foster Wallace, you can now sleep easy, because you have just been READ."
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Read in January, 2004
I never really read lit crit or reviews but I find Dale Peck hilarious and often spot on. So hit me.
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recommends it for:
speedy readers, critics
i laughed out-loud throughout. it's the antidote to acclaimed and terrible contemporary writers.
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Read in August, 2004
Loved it -- and now "Law of Enclosures" lies on my nightstand waiting its day of reckoning.
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