Cornel West At the Crossroads

The best review is a bad review. Example A - Scott McLemee's review of Cornel West's Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, A Memoir.

Legend has it that the blues guitarist Robert Johnson acquired his haunting style by selling his soul to the devil at a crossroads. West, as a “bluesman of the life of the mind,” has clearly also been to the crossroads. The devil gave him a team of publicists. I don't think this was a good bargain on West's part. It left him unable to recognize that self-respect is often the enemy of self-esteem.

[Snickering sounds.]

Comments

[Ben Brumfield]

My favorite bad review of all time is probably Ian Sansom's review of John Fowles' Journals. But I'd love to know other people's favorites.

[Doug]

I intended to title my review of a David Foster Wallace book of essays, "A Supposedly Good Author I Will Never Read Again." Unfortunately, I found the title rendered the review superfluous. (Rather like Daniel Davies and "Being Freakonomical With the Truth".)

This led Teresa Nielsen Hayden to say, "O, that is wonderful, I am slain."

[Doug]

Thanks for the pointer, BB. The review explains rather a lot about The Magus, except why people insist on liking it. Best line from Sansom, "They tidy up, your mum and dad."

[Marya]

West's comments on marriage made me chortle. Aren't we going to pillory him, the way we did Sandra Tsing Loh?

[Ben Brumfield]

I think we'd have to take West's comments more seriously than we take STL's to pillory him.

[MH]

I haven't read it, but I'm guessing that this is going to make STL seem reasonable.