Rotten Reviews Redux

The revival of a nasty bestseller!

A quarter century ago Pushcart Press took aim at ridiculous reviews that had trashed literary masterpieces through the centuries. Over 175 attacks were quoted in a little book that itself became a best-selling classic. Today much has changed. The rise of digital self-publishing has fired up hundreds of critical blogs. As the cliché has it everybody is a critic – and they’re often anonymous and far from nice.

This collection, with a new introduction, by Pushcart editor Bill Henderson includes gems like:

“The final blow-up of what was once a remarkable, if minor. talent.” (The New Yorker, 1936, on William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!)

“Diffuse…brackish…pretentious.” (Virginia Wolfe, 1922, on James Joyce’s Ulysses)

“Whitman is as unacquainted with art as a… Keep Reading