[761] in Humor
HUMOR: Bad Review
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew A. Bennett)
Fri Mar 10 09:37:05 1995
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1995 09:35:26 EST
From: "Andrew A. Bennett" <abennett@MIT.EDU>
Date: Mon, 06 Mar 1995 17:02:54 +0000 (GMT)
From: Espacionaute Spiff domine! <MATOSSIAN@aries.colorado.edu>
From: bostic@CS.Berkeley.EDU (Keith Bostic)
Forwarded-by: spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene "Chief Yuckster" Spafford)
Forwarded-by: rissa@prudence.fof.org (Patricia O Tuama)
Reviews for Robert James' newest book "Border Music", from
Newsweek 2/27/95.
"Robert James Waller, whose `novels' are the literary
equivalent of a toxic waste dump, has spilled another
drum of methylethyl bad stuff." --Henry Kisor, Chicago
Sun-Times
"What is the appeal of these books? Mr Waller's novels
read as if they had been churned out by a word processor
programmed with scenes from soap operas, B movies and
easy listening songs and written in language lifted from
Hemingway parody contests and Playboy picture captions."
-- Michiko Kabutani, New York Times
"Freed by guaranteed best-sellerdom to write as poorly
yet self-importantly as a person can, Waller conquers whole
new realms of wrongheaded lyricism and off-key poetry."
-- Walter Kirn, New York
"The folksy dialogue...smells of the SEARCH button on Wal-
ler's word processor, so relentlessly are the `G's' dropped.
-- Judith Dunford, Newsday
"When a reader's skin crawls every time the hero repeats
his special pet name for the novel's lady love...then you
know you loathe the book." -- Deidre Donahue, USA Today
"It's the literary equivalent of a velvet Elvis painting,
from its synthetic story line to its connect-the-dots char-
acters...." -- Vanessa V Friedman, Entertainment Weekly
