Book Reviewing: Some Thoughts Jul 29 '02    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet The Bottom Line A good place to vent, share knowledge, make friends and laugh. An excellent way of building confidence in and getting feedback on one's writing and communication skills. [NB: Re-posting of a review written earlier this year] Since June last year, I have had ample opportunity and time to get to know the site and some of its writers, and to form an opinion about the average level of writing. It has been an interesting exercise, and I count myself lucky to have met some highly articulate, intelligent people whose opinions and work have very much impressed me. On the other side of the coin however, there seem to be myriads of writers who churn out reviews with (apparently) little or no regard to quality. A review by mr_calcul8r (When is a typo not a typo? – 4 February 2002) explored this issue in some depth. I understand there was a backlash from certain disgruntled members, but any objective reader would undoubtedly discover more than a grain of truth in Mr C’s findings. We might even take note of his observations or, better still, endeavour to improve our own writing as a result. I should like to go a step further and address the way in which reviews are written up, not with the intention of putting anyone’s writing down per se (after all, I am just as open to criticism as the next person), but to give a few pointers about evaluating. My focus here will be on reviews of fiction and, to a lesser extent, films. What I’ve Noticed How many times have I seen a review which practically retells the story of a book or movie, while the author waxes lyrical about how lovely it was, how much he/she enjoyed it or was moved by it? Granted, everyone has the right to say “I liked this novel/film”, but as five years of writing literary criticism at University taught me, such statements or opinions need to be backed up by concrete examples. Example: Statement: I was moved to tears by the poignant passage about the grandmother’s death. This tells the reader nothing. Support the statement with a reason or example: The author uses highly emotive imagery to create the scene, mood and characters, e.g. …. then quote the passage or sentence which evokes the sentiment of being ‘moved to tears’. That way the reader of the review can get an idea how effective (or otherwise) the prose is. Other Elements Worth Considering Details like style, narrative, diction, development of characters, language, tense, point of view are often overlooked, but these do help a potential reader of a book decide whether it is worth purchasing or borrowing from the library. For example, if I enjoy pacy, lively writing with witty dialogue, and can’t stand too much descriptive prose, I’ll be unlikely to pick a book that rambles though pages of detailed narrative without a break. A good reviewer will make this distinction clear to the reader. Similarly with movies, it isn’t sufficient to tell the story and close with “I really liked this. It was very funny (or very dramatic, or whatever).” Let us know how well the director got the message across. Did the actors do a good job? How did the cinematography help create mood or feeling? Would this appeal to mainstream viewers or those with a specific interest? What about viewers/readers from a particular cultural or ethnic background? Essentially, I’m asking: “Does this review tell me what I want to know? Does it pique my curiosity? Make me want to read the book/see the film?” While I haven’t been trained at a professional level, I do have the parameters for writing book reviews compiled by Professor Elizabeth Jolley, one of Australia’s leading authors. Elizabeth gave these out to her Creative Writing class to assist us with one of our assignments, which was a book review, (for other Epinionators' interest, I used Ed Williamson’s Durango Light as my subject). If anyone feels these guidelines might be of help, please let me know and I'll be happy to send an e-copy. Thanks for your time and I hope this was helpful. Write away!

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