Possibly Walker's Worst Review in 20 Years

Michiko Kakutani stomps the new Alice Walker novel, Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart, to death. And then stomps on it some more to make sure. Because she really, really hates the protagonist's "tortuous journey from self-pity to self-congratulation." As I say, perhaps not since Thomas Disch's ""Snapped Prose In Slim Volumes," a 1984 article for the Washington Post wherein he reviewed Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful, has Walker gotten a smackdown this harsh. Oh, how I wish that review was available online, but 'tis not; still, if you can track down a copy of Disch's The Castle of Indolence, it's worth reading for his perceptive commentary on contemporary poetry.