This week's must-read is Vanity Fair crankypants James Wolcott's review of Adam Gopnik's most recent book, Through the Children's Gate: A Home in New York, published in The New Republic and available on its website (registration required but no obligations are entailed; the piece was posted February 2). Those who are skeptical of the way Gopnik filters the entire world (as he did earlier in Paris to the Moon) through his upper-middle-class colored preciousness will find much to amuse them as Wolcott swipes his paw at just about everything about the book.
Is Wolcott a charter snark, old-school division? Yes, he is. Is much of what he says on the mark and worth considering? Oh my, yes. Plus Wolcott gets megapoints from me for his reference to the Gilbert Sorrentino novel (actually, it's a roman a clef) Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things and its finely-honed portrait of writers and their sensitivities. Don't waste any time, oh ye writers among my readers, at least skim Wolcott's piece for a giggle.
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