What do you know...more book reviews. Today a friendly review from a myspace 'friend' on the music site folking.com and a great recommendation from The Skinny's Keir Hind. I sent a book to 'The Skinny' on a whim really so I was pleased to get such a result there! I know I'm unlikely to get mentioned in 'Poetry Review' so I've just had to try and think of alternative places and largely I've gone for publications and websites that I read myself. An odd collection, perhaps, but an interesting one.
So thinking about words...as you do...I was looking at the words that have been used so far in reviews of my wee, green book. I've had a 'quirky' (of course...I'm learning to love that one), a couple of 'powerful's (like those!) and a handful of 'enjoyable's (good to know). There's been a 'biting', a 'decent enough collection', a 'stoater' and a few comments on my surprising depths (hurray!)! I've been 'quiet, simple, truthful', 'natural, unforced and unpretentious' and 'wise' and 'witty' - it's all quite encouraging. I am thinking maybe I'm not such a waste of space after all...
In Keir Hind's review I was especially pleased with 'frequently clever' - which is odd considering I wrote the lines 'Worry less about the cleverness/Worry more about the song' in a poem and even took part of it for my title. Ah, the irony...at least I think it's irony...I think my point was 'worry less' not 'don't worry at all'...
Anyway, my question for all of you is...when you get reviewed in some way which words do you long to hear or see about your writing (or other creative work)? And which words do you dread? Which words make you happy and which make your heart sink? I got 'trite' once in a poetry magazine rejection letter and that's one of my least favourites...although I did what I usually do in these situations...I used it in a poem not long after ('Not tonight, Radiohead' as it happens) and it was perfect, it really came in handy. So thanks to that annoying editor-person that poem came together and is now one of the poems that people comment on the most.
Creative writing 1 Snipey critics 0. Aha!
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7 comments:
In a recent review - which Aggie and Shuggie (and Maggie) will talk about tomorrow - I got compared to Samuel Beckett. I can die in peace.
Don't go just yet though Jim!
I don't think there are any words I long to hear. What I most dread is reading something that makes it perfectly clear that the reviewer has completely misunderstood what I was trying to say.
That hasn't happened with this book yet but I'm sure it's just a matter of time...
I was once part of a group which got reviewed in NME (or Melody Maker, I forget which) as "a pseudo-exploratory metaphysical jerk-off usually confined to Radio 3".
It made my day then. It pleases me still.
Hi Dominic
Good to meet you. I lived in Yorkshire for years so glad to have visitors from down that way.
What was the group called (that you were in at the time of this review)? I did write reviews (mainly for the national music business 'Record Mirror' and the Leeds based 'LOP/Northern Star') but never for NME or MM! Your attitude to the snipey review is admirable. Getting wound up about it is pointless so embracing and celebrating the reviewer's prejudices and stupidity is a much better technique! I will try and get to grips with that for the future...
I looked at your lists on the blog profile. I love the book 'The Sea the Sea' by Iris Murdoch too. I read it as a teenager and loved it and then read it as a grown-up a few years ago and still did. Her best - in my opinion.
The group had no name - we'd just got together for that occasion. I was a member of the Manchester Musician's Collective at the time and we were doing a gig at the Band on the Wall in Manchester.
I picked up another Murdoch in the Oxfam shop the other day - Message to the Planet.I've yet to read it.
(By the way, feel free to go beyond my "profile" page to the blog, dominicrivron.blogspot.com - I hope it showed up.)
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