The eminence of James Wood as a literary critic is rarely questioned; a few years ago the upstarts at N+1 (the McSweeney’s of the East), tried to do just that and ended up embroiled in a rhetorical chess match that they devoted whole issues to, whether that was resolved is anyone’s guess. In his latest attack Wood harpoons the newest novel of Paul Auster by beginning his review as a parody of all of Auster’s plots. A small nugget from the review “although there are things to admire in Auster’s fiction, the prose is never one of them”. We call that slightly abrasive…






Popular Articles