Book Reviewers versus Book Critics

Posted on March 18th, 2010

The always helpful Frank Wilson at Books, Inq. provides a link to the interesting video from National Book Critics Circle’s panel discussion (March 20, 1996) that focuses on the differences between book reviews and criticism:

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/73470-1

Note that Wilson makes a very important observation in response to the video, which is worth quoting (repeating) here: “I always thought the difference between reviewing and criticism was that the critic can presume that his reader is familiar with the text or texts he is writing about, whereas the reviewer must presume the opposite.”

I very much agree with Wilson’s assertion, but I would add another distinction between reviewing and criticism: Much of what is published as literary criticism is often inaccessible to the average reader because it tends to be written often by academics for academics, and thus it is written in a special language (jargon) common to academics but unfamiliar to the general reader; on the other hand, book reviewing—when it is done properly—is written clearly in accessible prose by careful and observant readers solely for the use of other readers who wish to be similarly careful and observant in their reading choices and habits.

Tags: Academics, Accessible Prose, Assertion, Book Reviewers, Book Reviews, Choices, Distinction, Frank Wilson, Jargon, Literary Criticism, National Book Critics, National Book Critics Circle, Observant Readers, Observation, Panel Discussion, Texts
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