In Case Sam Tanenhaus Doesn't Read Gawker...

Gawker's NYTBR-browsing "Intern Alexis" has spotted the problem with
Richard Brookhiser's review of The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln:

"'This book is already getting noticed' is how Richard Brookhiser dramatically opens his review of C.A. Tripp’s expos-gay of Abraham Lincoln. But what does that even mean? If you think about it, every book reviewed in the New York Times Book Review is 'already getting noticed' in one way or another. In fact, New York Times reporter Dinitia Smith 'already noticed' this book a month ago. Just sayin."

Alexis hits upon an important problem that's cropped up in recent months (that might well have plagued McGrath's Review as well; I didn't notice, but in all honesty I wasn't looking that hard). The "news about the culture" approach isn't an inherently bad one to take, but with several major books, that approach comes late. Think about how long it took NYTBR, in relation to other media, to give even a cursory review to Unfit for Command, or to deliver its more thoughtful consideration of Kitty Kelley's Bush family biography. Even given the longer lead times the Review has to work with, which can be especially problematic in the case of media-embargoed books, this is a serious issue.

Mind you, there's not a risk--yet--of the Review becoming totally overrun with "already getting noticed" books: this week's early-bird review of the short story collection Sightseeing proves they can still stay on top of things. Of course, fiction isn't as ruthlessly headline-driven as nonfiction... but then that circles right back to the issue of whether how headline-driven a book review should be in the first place, an argument that's been quite well hashed out in several other blogs already.