When he says the book must be read in "bits and pieces", well...i couldn't put it down,
That was one of the parts that actually didn't offend me.
And isn't all work of fiction, at least in part, autobiographical?
It is, which I've said publicly, repeatedly. But if he knows that (and it doesn't seem that he does), he probably thinks that's "self-indulgent."
I think the crux of his problem goes back the reader response theory (which I abhor) and the idea of a "reader-writer contract" (which I deny). He thinks the author has a responsibility, an obligation, to provide a certain sort of traditionally coherent narrative to the reader. I think that's absurd.
But like I said, I found it an articulate review, even if I also found it utterly mistaken in most of its conclusions.
Re: The Red Tree
When he says the book must be read in "bits and pieces", well...i couldn't put it down,
That was one of the parts that actually didn't offend me.
And isn't all work of fiction, at least in part, autobiographical?
It is, which I've said publicly, repeatedly. But if he knows that (and it doesn't seem that he does), he probably thinks that's "self-indulgent."
I think the crux of his problem goes back the reader response theory (which I abhor) and the idea of a "reader-writer contract" (which I deny). He thinks the author has a responsibility, an obligation, to provide a certain sort of traditionally coherent narrative to the reader. I think that's absurd.
But like I said, I found it an articulate review, even if I also found it utterly mistaken in most of its conclusions.