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Jul. 8th, 2004 08:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pantryslutWell, I just read my first bad review of The Jane Austen Book Club. The person doesn't like Austen (neither do I), doesn't like book clubs (neither do I), and finds the book trite and unfunny.
I'm going to smile a smile both winning and bewildered, and proclaim that clearly the book was too subtle for the reviewer. I am of course hideously biased, since Karen Joy Fowler is both one of my favorite authors and one of my favorite people. But actually, I think the reviewer has an axe to grind against the Oprah book club phenomenon in general and what its done to publishing in particular, and the book was just a convenient target.
(There was also something weirdly condescending about the review. Dare I say I detect a thread of misogyny? Silly women and their silly books? I am aware that the reviewer herself is a woman, btw. Because frankly, the first paragraph or so, listing all the reasons to hate book clubs, I agree with -- and is why I find JABC so fun, in part.)
I'm going to smile a smile both winning and bewildered, and proclaim that clearly the book was too subtle for the reviewer. I am of course hideously biased, since Karen Joy Fowler is both one of my favorite authors and one of my favorite people. But actually, I think the reviewer has an axe to grind against the Oprah book club phenomenon in general and what its done to publishing in particular, and the book was just a convenient target.
(There was also something weirdly condescending about the review. Dare I say I detect a thread of misogyny? Silly women and their silly books? I am aware that the reviewer herself is a woman, btw. Because frankly, the first paragraph or so, listing all the reasons to hate book clubs, I agree with -- and is why I find JABC so fun, in part.)
