The Anthologist

I recently finished Nicholson Baker's The Anthologist: A Novel . Hard to believe that a novelist decided to write an entire book from the perspective of a poet, Paul Chowder, who is trying to write the introduction for an anthology of rhyming poems. Baker, however, has written a compelling novel for us poets (for others?). I think it is helped by the fact that it is a novel, which means Baker need not worry about potential blowback. Here's a quote:

Let's have a look at this poem [in The New...