Lies, Damn Lies And Capsule Reviews
Alfred Hickling has long been my least favourite reviewer for the Guardian (excluding Eric Brown, obviously.) However he has surpassed himself this week with his review of The Glass Books And The Dream Eaters. Not only does he get the title of GW Dahlquist's novel wrong but he also clearly hasn't read the novel. His one sentence summary is factually wrong on two major points:Three principal characters - a prostitute, a physician and a blind assassin - become involved in a shady society whose sadistic rituals Dahlquist dwells on at dubious length.
If you can't get the broadest details of the principal characters right, what can you get right? I fully understand that no one is about to read a 750 page novel just to write a 150 word capsule but since he has somehow managed to wangle the gig at the Guardian you might think he could at least participate in the fiction that capsule reviews are real reviews and not give the game away so easily.
If you can't get the broadest details of the principal characters right, what can you get right? I fully understand that no one is about to read a 750 page novel just to write a 150 word capsule but since he has somehow managed to wangle the gig at the Guardian you might think he could at least participate in the fiction that capsule reviews are real reviews and not give the game away so easily.