James Wood is described as “the most brutal, the most loathed, the most respected literary critic of his time.” He has been “merciless in debunking many esteemed writers of the age — Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, Toni Morrison and Salman Rushdie. Now the New Republic book critic is about to publish his own first novel, and James Wood the novelist is fair game. “A critic writing a novel is like William Bennett in a casino. All eyes are upon him.”