In Defense Of The Negative Book Review: Can Hatchet Jobs Build Strong Literary Culture?

“The language of marketing is that of ‘appreciation,’ and if literary critics adopt appreciation as their primary mode, they have not achieved critical distance from market interests. … The reviewer must be allowed to retain the option of proclaiming some books superior to others in the canon; if this right is denied her, then reviewing has become an extension of marketing, and she has lost credibility.”