In with the In Crowd

Recent criticisms on bookblogs, from anonymous commentators and actual bloggers alike, warn that the literary sector of the "blogosphere" is in danger of becoming an "incestuous world" infused with "hypocritical clubbiness." I'm less than convinced--especially taking into consideration that the last time Galleycat shared her email gossip with readers, she had to quickly apologize for lazily perpetuating a smear on an author's reputation. More importantly, it's hard to see how literary bloggers could come across with a more incestuous public image than the publishing industry lately. To wit:

• Sarah Weinman connects the dots between Otto Penzler's enthusiastic New York Sun take on Andrew Klavan's thrillers last week and this week's announcement of Klavan's two-book deal with...you guessed it, Otto Penzler. (Although, in all fairness, one can well imagine a world in which Klavan's agent saw the column and, knowing that Penzler's one of the top editors in the genre, called him up and said, "Hey, I know you like Andrew; how'd you like his next two books?" No, you're not the first person to call me naive.)
  
• A few sites have made mention of the anger one guy has over this year's winners of the Iowa Short Fiction Award, which has led to threats of a class-action lawsuit. Why? As Rake's Progress summarizes, "Kevin Brockmeier (Iowa MFA '97) was the judge. He picked as the winners Anthony Varallo (Iowa MFA '97) and Douglas Trevor (Assistant Professor, the Department of English, University of Iowa)."
  

While Galleycat is right that "bloggers feel comfortable encouraging readers to check out their friends' books," they are also tremendously upfront about it when they do so. And I think she's just dead wrong in suggesting "other bloggers have begun to count as friends--i.e., people who can be publicly plugged, but not publicly critiqued." I can speak only for myself, but just this week, I "publicly critiqued" one of my favorite bookbloggers for recommending The Plot Against America over The Inner Circle in the Morning News Tournament of Books for non-literary reasons. Although that wasn't as boneheaded a move as the subsequent championing of Plot over Heir to the Glimmering World, even when he admits Cynthia Ozick's book is "practically flawless in its storytelling" and "a rich achievement." Maud Newton's review at least gave sincere consideration to Roth and Boyle before she chose Roth for (what I believe are) the wrong reasons; Andrew Womack comes off as if he didn't get past Ozick's flap copy. In what has proven to be a largely mediocre "tournament" only occasionally enlivened by something resembling genuinely thoughtful or entertaining literary criticism, this is a low point which might only possibly be exceeded when Roth faces David Mitchell in the final round after the weekend's through.