One of the joys of Sunday mornings for me has always been the New York Times review of books, which comes as an insert in the local paper. I’ve always loved to read, but life is pretty full right now and I don’t get the chance as much as I would like. Skimming the NYT review gives me the sense that I’m keeping up with the literary world on the cheap, time being the fire that we burn in.
It is not always thus, alas: To read the NYT Book Review is also to be imposed upon by one Michiko Kakutani. It is a disconcerting thing, when reading your Sunday paper, to sense that you are in the presence of a kind of steely, determined madness, and whatever else you might say of her, Ms. Kakutani has the power to disconcert. Is it enough to know that Ms. Kakutani graduated from Yale in 1976, worked at the Washington Post for a time before moving up country and landing paid work at the Times and winning the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1998? Is it sufficient to know the labels that authors from such differing schools as Norman Mailer (“kamikaze”) and Salman Rushdie (“weird”) use for her? Or that the former avers that the editors at the Times were too terrified of her to let her go?
No. It is not enough. But it is at least a start.
This week Ms. Kakutani reviews “War by Other Means,” by former administration lawyer and current UC Berkeley prof John Yoo. Or I should say, she pretends to review the book: In this instance her writing occupies a blurry boundary between a not-quite rebuttal – a line she could have crossed, had she made any affirmative assertions of her own – and a 1400+ word gasp of outrage. In the space between the two we do not learn much about Mr. Yoo’s book but that Ms. Kakutani does not agree with any of it. She never quite condescends to tell us why – the proofs, if any are necessary, are left to the reader.
Mr. Yoo has not used his academic background in the legal aspects of war powers issues and executive authority to make a persuasive case here for the administration
Ah, Lex, you so need to send this to the Times editorial page!
“tendentious”? Of course it’s tendentious… it’s Yoo’s views on Yoo’s former job — the book’s not meant to be unbiased — it’s a defense and reasoning for the actions taken. I, for one, now plan to read Yoo’s book based simply on the fact that it pisses off Ms. Kakutani and anyone at the NYT.
Yee-ouch!! That closing paragraph is devastating. Once again, I am renewed in my vow to never draw critical attention from you.
*stepping back a safe distance*
Personally, I’d like to see the lady get into a “discussion” with Lex…of course, that would be kinda like bringing a knife to a gunfight
BZ on your discourse. Keep it up.
Apropos of your post below, I wonder what Ms. Kakutani gives to charity annually?
It simply amazes me that New Yorkers, living right there at Ground Zero, can be so cavalier about the War on Terrorism. It wouldn’t surprise me if the very building that she works in showed up on some Al-Qaeda target list. Does she really feel invincible enough to sneer at the efforts being made by the United States military to protect her?
[...] litbomb thrower Michuo Kakutani snuggles up with Silocon Valley aristo Andrew Keen’s recent book – “The Cult of the [...]