According to the blog Edward Champion’s Return of the Reluctant, the death of William Styron brought forth the first glimmer of praise for fiction from the NYT BooK Review’s Michiko Kakutani since February. That’s eight months if you’re keeping score at home. Here’s a short one act play that I’ve written to honor this achievement.
SCENE - Stage lights come up to reveal three children sitting around a suburban kitchen table. The first child is cautiously holding a copy of Dave Eggers new novel, What is the What.
Janet Maslin: I don’t want to review it. (grimacing) You review it.Passes novel to William Grimes
William Grimes: I don’t want to review it. You review it.Passes book back to Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin: I know, (she brightens) let’s get Michiko to try it.
William Grimes: (Looking unconvinced) She won’t like. She hates everything.
William Grimes passes the book to Machiko Kakutani. Michiko picks up the book, reads it, and writes a rave review.
Janet Maslin: (looking on in amazement) She likes it! Hey, Michiko!
(Curtain).
I’m not sure if this counts though. What is the What is a fictionalized account of a true story. Kakutani surprisingly seems to miss the point on this. She says, “the book is flawed by an odd decision on Mr. Eggers’s part to fictionalize Mr. Deng’s story — a curious choice, especially in the wake of the uproar over James Frey’s fictionalized memoir earlier this year.”
Huge difference. James Frey sold his story as the truth. Eggers is telling people up front, hey, some of this has been made up for dramatic purposes. He has done a pretty decent job of explaining why he made that decision elsewhere. Anyway, otherwise it is a stellar review. For Dave Eggers no less. Who’d a thunk it.