Inside the Critics' Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times

by Phillipa K. Chong

Overview

An inside look at the politics of book reviewing, from the assignment and writing of reviews to why critics think we should listen to what they have to say

Taking readers behind the scenes in the world of fiction reviewing, Inside the Critics’ Circle explores the ways critics evaluate books despite the inherent subjectivity involved and the uncertainties of reviewing when seemingly anyone can be a reviewer. Drawing on interviews with critics from such venues as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post, Phillipa Chong delves into the complexities of the review-writing process, including the considerations, values, and cultural and personal anxieties that shape what critics do.

Chong explores how critics are paired with review assignments, why they accept these time-consuming projects, how they view their own qualifications for reviewing certain books, and the criteria they employ when making literary judgments. She discovers that while their readers are of concern to reviewers, they are especially worried about authors on the receiving end of reviews. As these are most likely peers who will be returning similar favors in the future, critics’ fears and frustrations factor into their willingness or reluctance to write negative reviews.

At a time when traditional review opportunities are dwindling while other forms of reviewing thrive, book reviewing as a professional practice is being brought into question. Inside the Critics’ Circle offers readers a revealing look into critics’ responses to these massive transitions and how, through their efforts, literary values get made.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691167466
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	01/14/2020
Series:	Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology , #12
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Phillipa K. Chong is assistant professor of sociology at McMaster University. Twitter @ChongSOC

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Filled with acumen and understanding, Inside the Critics’ Circle carefully dissects the reviewing process, a subject that academics and the reading class will find fascinating, relevant, and disturbing. The book’s theoretical claims rest on solid empirical foundations and I applaud its topic and research."—Wendy Griswold, Northwestern University

"This is the most sophisticated account of the evaluative work of cultural intermediaries to date. In this must-read book, Phillipa Chong shows how reviewers calibrate their judgments to attempt to mitigate various forms of uncertainty, but in so doing, manage to reproduce hierarchies of privilege and inequality in the cultural field."—Omar Lizardo, University of California, Los Angeles

"Appealing and informative, Inside the Critics’ Circle offers an empirically based portrait of book reviewing from the perspective of reviewers. It will satisfy the curiosity of readers who want to know about how book review editors pick reviewers, how reviewers accomplish their task, whether and how reviewers perceive their work as fair, and far more."—Michèle Lamont, Harvard University

"In Inside the Critics’ Circle, Phillipa Chong immerses herself in the fluid and uncertain freelance world of newspaper-based book reviewing, where reviewer-writers adhere to the informal norms of playing nice, punching up the status hierarchy of authors. This book will interest academicians and practitioners in the sociology of culture and work, communications, media studies, and journalism, and freelance tastemakers whose reviews of consumer goods appear in print, broadcast, and online media."—Daniel B. Cornfield, Vanderbilt University

Editorial Reviews

"The country’s newspaper book review pages evaporated in the 21st century. . . . Those of us who remain occupy one of the most tenuous positions in an extraordinarily tenuous industry. That seems to be what attracted the attention of Phillipa K. Chong, a sociology professor at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. . . . Chong offers rare insight."—-Ron Charles, Washington Post Book Club

"Phillipa Chong’s precise, insightful and fascinating book focuses on journalist critics of fiction who write with an eye to newsworthiness as well as literary value, rather than academics."—-Robert Eaglestone, Times Higher Education

From the Publisher

2019-10-23
A clinical exploration of how books get reviewed, what the consequences are, and whether any of it means anything at all.

In her first book, Chong (Sociology/McMaster Univ.) turns her critical eye to the art of book reviews and the conceptual insights that go into each review. "Book reviews matter," writes the author at the beginning. "Getting a review in a high-status publication…regardless of whether the review is positive or negative increases the odds that a writer will go on to publish future books." Some readers (and critics) will question the breadth of her study—the New York Times and the Atlantic are wonderful platforms, but most book reviewers won't see their names in those pages—but Chong works diligently through the review process, starting with a consideration of "aesthetic quality" before moving on to the idea that while "reviewing is utterly subjective…this is not to say that reviewing is utterly unreasoned or idiosyncratic." The center of the narrative focuses on consequences—believe it or not, even negative reviews can help sell books—and the author also takes into consideration the symbiotic nature of bylined reviews. Many critics are also authors, of course, and Chong notes the tendency of "playing nice" among writers reviewing under their own names. (Anyone reading this review knows that Kirkus reviews are anonymous.) The most intriguing question comes in Chapter 7: "Do We Need Book Reviews?" Whether it's the threat posed by "amateur reviewers" on Amazon, Goodreads, or other online platforms or the existential threat that keeps reviewers up at night, "irrelevance," these are questions worth pondering. However, noncritics and other lay readers aren't likely to find much value in this speculative dissection of a complicated and evolving trade, "a highly uncertain endeavor."

Useful reading for book critics and journalists who cover books, but the audience likely ends there.

Kirkus Reviews