BROWDERBOOKS
This post is all about my latest book and its reviewers.
Reviewers: They Lift Your Spirits,
They Break Your Bones
I learned long ago that a writer has to have the thickest of skins in order to survive reviews. Not all reviews, of course, just. the bad ones. My current offering, New Yorkers: A Feisty People Who Will Unsettle, Madden, Amuse and Astonish You, has amazed me by accumulating excellent editorial reviews, followed lately by a series of negative reviews such as no book of mine has ever before inspired. Among these negative reviews are some more good ones, but for me personally, the negative ones risk overshadowing the positive ones.
I remind myself that if this book has received many bad reviews, it's in part because it has received more reviews in general than its predecessors. Still, many of the bad reviews baffle me.
Here is my favorite bad review, rating the book a single star, the worst rating possible. It's a long review; I'll offer only what I consider the choicest parts.
Review by Janet G.
This book has fewer facts than anecdotes. And fewer anecdotes than unsubstantiated opinions. It also has a bigoted slant that set me on edge from the beginning. The author… speaks very highly of New York and New Yorkers, as to be expected. Not expected is his building up of New Yorkers by tearing down other groups…. Just as unexpected were his disparaging remarks about The Heartland and its Republican and WASP nature. Almost every group he extolls is paired with a group he reviles. Not even 20% into the book, he went on an extremely vile rant about our President. Without proof or even anecdotal evidence, he made vile claims that are his opinion only and not historical facts. That is the point I stopped reading this book.
Such is this reviewer's opinion of the book and its author. She has misread me from start to finish. The author is himself a native of the heartland and has often told his New York friends that the heartland is not, emphatically not, fly-over country. As for the "vile rant" about our President, I assume it refers to the second paragraph on p. 54, in the chapter on hustlers. The passage in question declares that the jailed financial operator Martin Shkreli is "Donald Trump writ small," and calls the two of them stellar examples of the New York hustler. This is indeed my opinion, and I stand by it.
Here now are extracts from a five-star review of the book by "Mochalove," a fellow New Yorker.
This is not your typical cut and dry biography, providing dry facts; instead, the read is a heartfelt memoir of a man and the city he lives, loves, survives and works in. The narrative keeps you rapt in its pages with a winning combination of information gleaned from Mr. Browder’s unique standpoint, research, and experiences from his many years as a resident.... Part biography, part historical dive and part travel guide, this work offers a tantalizing vision of an exciting city overflowing with diversity in all respects.
Would you believe that these two reviewers are talking about the same book? Every seasoned author knows to expect diversity of opinion among reviewers, but I have never before known it to be so extreme. And this is just one example among many. How potential readers will decide whether or not the book is worth buying, I cannot imagine.
I wish them all good judgment and good luck.
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