Hatchet Jobs

[Otto]

"We get no sense of what Peck actually wants from literature."

My impression was that he wants clear good and bad like in pre-modern
narratives.

"Charles Dickens is "the worst writer to plague the English language.""

Something like this should be answered by an English Professor.

Steve Almond: "PECKED TO DEATH"
http://www.mobylives.com/Peck_Almond.html


"If I don't say much about the strengths of the writers whom I review, nor
do I offer an alternative to the writing I spend so much time dissing.
Sympathetic readers have often asked, if this is what writers shouldn't be
doing, then what should they do? My feeling is that the last thing readers
need is a writer telling them what to read (besides his or her own books, of
course). And as for writers: well, if you need me to tell you how to write a
novel, then you probably shouldn't be writing one in the first place."

A CRITIC'S LIFE IN A WORLD OF STEPFORD NOVELS.
Hatchet Jobs
by Dale Peck, Post date 11.26.03 | Issue date 12.01.03
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?pt=mBFc/9JGFQ4h0PgGzX4qAx