The "Dirt" on an "American" Publishing Controversy

Can I write a headline or what?

In class on Tuesday I talked about "American Dirt," its publicity machine, and the critical backlash to it. As we were talking, Oprah chose it as her latest book club pick.

There are a number of things I want you to check out in advance of tomorrow's class.

First, there's the Lauren Groff review from Sunday's Times Book Review.

Then, there's daily critic Parul Sehgal's review from Friday.

Trying to make sense of this is a New Republic web piece from Alex Shephard.
I like Shephard's piece because he diagnoses what seems to be at stake here: Groff's byline, he says, was meant to signal to the reader that this was a big book to be taken seriously. And, further, that most of the novelists and other writers who freelance for the Book Review might take a little bit lighter touch than they otherwise would because they know that they'll be reviewed someday.

Sehgal isn't constrained in quite the same way. Bonus: a nearly hour-long interview with her, in which she says that her responsibility is to "the reader" or to "literature" and not to the publishing world's publicity machine.

Most interesting, I think is Myriam Gurba's post, in which she publishes her review of "American Dirt" that was killed by a prestigious magazine because she couldn't find anything "redeeming" in it.