Human Smoke reviewed by Colm Toibin

Elizabeth — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:27:40 +0000

Next week, Colm Toibin will be appearing with Nathan Englander at the Wayward Sons session at the Virginia Festival of the Book. You can get a preview of Toibin's style in this NYT review of Nicholson Baker's Human Smoke. Toibin considers Human Smoke more worthy of a respectful reading than did NYT reviewer William Grimes, who found it a "self-important, hand-wringing, moral mess of a book."

Human Smoke Roundtable

Elizabeth — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:56:37 +0000

It's a resounding broadside against critics who think literary blogging is just a bunch of know-nothings with computers in a basement in Terre Haute: Edward Champion brings us The Human Smoke Roundtable.

Human Smoke is a brand new title from Nicholson Baker which is proving to be a "500-page Rorschach test" for reviewers:

LA Times: "It may be one of the most important books you will ever read."
New York Times: "...this self-important, hand-wringing, moral mess of a book."
New York Sun: "...not just a stupid book, but a scary one."

I haven't read the book, but I find the premise intriguing: It's a compilation of facts and observations about World War II and the run-up to war. The facts are chosen and juxtaposed in such a way as to question whether the war was necessary and whether it was, as our modern mythology insists, "a just war." As I say, I haven't yet read it myself, but I revel in the idea of a five-part on-line discussion of any work that involves no fewer than 15 critics/close readers, along with the author himself.

Participants in the roundtable include Champion, Sarah Weinman, Levi Asher, Brian Francis Slattery, Colleen Mondor, Ed Park, Jason Boog, Eric Rosenfield, Nick Antosca, Robert Birnbaum, Jackson West, Judith Zissman, Matt Cheney, Dan Green, Frank Wilson, and Nicholson Baker.

There isn't any way to sum up the discussion, so I urge you, if you're interested in Human Smoke, Nicholson Baker, World War II, American militarism, or raising the bar on literary discussions, to read it for yourself.

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Human Smoke reviewed by Colm Toibin

Human Smoke Roundtable