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The Review Revue: Worth It On Its Own Merits
August 29, 2007
Sometimes a book review is just a book review... and sometimes, a book review is worth a cigarette afterwards. (Just a virtual cigarette! A figurative cigarette! Not a
real cigarette. That would be naughty. And so worthy of A.N.Wilson -- see my LitNotes: English Eccentrics Edition post... )
I politely but firmly encourage you to read
Louis Bayard's Washington Post review of Ed Klein's Katie Couric biography (full disclosure: Lou, or "Mr. Bayard," as he insists on being called at lunch, is a friend). Who could resist a critique that begins thusly:
"She's conniving and self-absorbed and ungrateful. And shallow. And into younger men. And older men. She makes too much money, and she yelled at her husband. And she's had work done. And she's liberal. And she was mean to Ann Curry. . . .
Well, by now, you get the general flavor of Edward Klein's unauthorized biography, which seeks to portray its subject as a little bullet fired into the heart of the fourth estate. You may wonder why making that point was worth a book. You may also wonder if the same book would have been written about a male broadcaster. Finally, you may wonder why you should expect anything very serious from the author of "The Kennedy Curse," which describes the late Carolyn Bessette Kennedy as 'sprawled on the floor in front of a sofa, disheveled and hollow-eyed, snorting cocaine with a gaggle of gay fashionistas.' "
As Bayard goes on to note, "it takes a tough man to write a phrase like 'gaggle of gay fashionistas.'" It takes an even tougher man to take on Klein's bruiser-biographer persona and conclude that:
" 'At heart," he concludes, in a tone somewhere between sorrow and anger, "Katie was not an anchor." But who is this mystical "anchor" he speaks of? And can we make it go away? Does a mature society really need someone popping up four or five minutes a night to pat our hands and express the hope that we had a good day?
As it is, the very premises that undergird broadcast news are being undercut every day by the blogosphere, which revels in the greatest number of voices and which will almost certainly leave future generations wondering how we could have placed our trust in a single smiling entity (connected via earpiece to omniscient producers). We are becoming our own news anchors, and maybe it's time."
After hearing a radio interview with Klein yesterday in which he and the host waxed nostalgic about the best teleprompter readers ever, I have to say, friendly feelings or no, I agree with Mr. Bayard. But even if I didn't, his review is delicious and pointed -- well worth the read.
Posted by Bethanne Patrick on August 29, 2007 | Comments (4)
