Scum, Like Cream, Floats to the Top

Janet Maslin previews the forthcoming new era of expanded Times coverage of airport reading by stealing a trick from Anthony Lane (who, sure, probably got it from somewhere else, himself) and reading a whole mess of bestsellers at once--and, oddly enough, the "new" Heinlein. Of course, she pulls it off badly, but then, she is to the Times book review section what Daphne Merkin was to the New Yorker film critics' stable.

Not counting the lazy assertions that people who buy John Grisham or Elmore Leonard would buy a blank book if it had one of their names on the cover (oh, those undiscriminating masses), we get this prize gem concerning the new J.D. Robb:

And even if it unfolds in the midst of household droids and futuristic technology, "Divided in Death" isn't really science fiction.

Sure, and the part about it being set decades from now? That doesn't make it sci-fi, either. It's just a unique thriller, kind of like Fatherland wasn't really an alternate history novel.

At least she points out how Spencer Johnson is trying to repackage his past publishing failures to remarket them to a public who actually gives a rat's ass what he has to say now.