The Importance of Evidence

Would add to this that discussing the particulars of a book is a good way to “tell the story” of a book without relying on plot summary. Good critics always endeavor to find their own way through a book.

Because he does not or cannot clarify his judgment of The Garden of Lost and Found, Powers’s “negative” review comes off as probably more harsh than it would be if he had explored those judgments quoted in the passage above even a little bit more thoroughly. Similarly, a postive review is likely to to seem mere “enthusiasm” when it doesn’t examine the particulars of the book more closely. In many ways, book reviews are unable to avoid being categorized as either snappishly negative or blandly enthusiastic.

The book review as we now know it is essentially a journalistic form designed to “report” on books in the way other sections of a newspaper or magazine report on their subjects. As book reviewing increasingly moves from its diminishing pages in print publications to less restrictive space online, perhaps an alternative to, or at least extension of, the book review that makes it more capable of incorporating real literary criticism can be developed.

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