Negative book review sends Buzz Bissinger into a Twitter fit

OK, I gotta follow this up:

I wrote him back, sayinbg I was glad he responded so quickly and that I was surprised.

He responded to me, and I gotta give him credit.


"I was surprised you replied as well and it says a lot about you.

I have been on book tour for a month; It has been fun (mostly) but mentally and physically exhausting. It has made me punchy and frustrated at times. I admit that. I do have a potty mouth and should be more restrained. But when a critic personally attacks me, I am not equipped to turn the other cheek.

Anyway thanks for responding."

 

Why is a book review a "personal attack"? Because it doesn't fawn all over Bissinger? The reviewer in question probably expected more of a bonding experience, and who wouldn't if they first read this passage from Bissinger's own website:

Ultimately, their trip bestows a new and uplifting wisdom on Buzz, as he comes to realize that Zach's worldview, as exotic as it is, has a sturdy logic of its own, a logic that deserves the greatest respect. And with the help of Zach's twin, Gerry, Buzz learns an even more vital lesson about Zach: character transcends intellect. We come to see Zach as he truly is—patient, fearless, perceptive, kind, a sixth sense for sincerity. It takes 3,500 miles, but Buzz learns the most valuable lesson he has ever learned.

His son Zach is not a man-child as he so often thought, but the man he admires most in his life.

 

A reviewer can say anything he wants. I say anything I want back. If for some godforsaken reason I am at TCU, I will find Alex Lemon.

 

I thought the DMN review was well-written. It made me more interested in the story, even as it made me not want to buy the book.

 

Funnny -- isn't this the way it works most of the time? Someone sends you a blistering email calling you all types of crap, and if you respond neutrally and with some version of "thanks for reading," all of a sudden they admit they went overboard.

 

I have done the same thing myself, so yes.

I still thinking he's overreacting to what is like one of the few negative reviews, and you know I am a pain in the ass about politeness, but I gotta say I felt better about him getting that.

 

Put in all the effort that a book takes, especially when it's a book about your brain-damaged son and sometimes your own failings as a father, and then try not to take a criticism "personally."

You can put years in a book and then someone can trash it in a few minutes. That math sucks.

 

Yeah, but that's also the way it goes sometimes. If Bissinger can't handle that sometimes people are going to criticize or even trash his work, he should get out of the business. He's been around long enough to know that. And if he doesn't know it, he's willfully obtuse.

And with that particular subject matter, where you're putting so much of yourself and your family out there, again, you especially need to be prepared for the fact that some people are not going to love it to pieces. And some people are going to not love it to the point where they are actually critical of it. If Bissinger was not willing to accept that fact, he should not have written it.

On top of everything else, there's also a big difference between taking something personally and going nuclear. His reaction was so completely inappropriate and over the top that he deserves to be called out and, yes, mocked for it.

 

Life sucks. If you write a book and can't handle one critic's opinion, than maybe you're in the wrong business.

 

A couple thoughts here about book reviewing in general. I don't know if there is anything to be gained, ever, by getting into a pissing match with a book reviewer, and I've had plenty I'd like to have pissed on. Although it might make you feel better I don't think it will ever change anyone’s mind. Besides, unless the review is just totally out of left field, completely groundless and not really responding to anything in the book, many times the criticism contains some seed of truth. As a teacher and a fine writer once told me, as an author you have to remember that once you put the words on the page, they're not yours anymore, they're the readers, and you are not a dictator of meaning, and you have to understand that some readers just aren't that smart – that's why they're not writers. If the reader comes to a conclusion or gets an impression you didn't intend for he or she to have, well, to some degree, that's on you, for failing to communicate. The math is always going to be bad because the reading experience will never remotely approach the time spent writing – that's a given. But that's just how I see it.

The reviews that really piss me off, and that authors should get belligerent about, are those that completely misstate or misrepresent the contents, because the reviewer clearly didn't read the book. That's a whole different story, but one that, sadly, is more common than one would think.

And as an aside, I tell every writer I know not to review books, ever, ever, ever. If you write, I don't think you can really review objectively, if you do, you'll pay for it down the line, and if you don't write, I don't think you're qualified. I (briefly) did it, and learned very quickly that authors have zero interest in an honest appraisal (reviewing a friends’ books as only “good” but not “great,” earned me his enduring wrath, and a “major figure” in my field was calling me a son of a bitch fifteen years later for saying his book didn’t reach the standard he had set for himself). The whole process, which gains you free books and is also a hustle for your next review assignment, made me feel like a whore. The only honest review is the one you write and never show anyone.

All we want and hope for are the raves, but if we’re going to use those on the backs of our book and on our web pages and in our next proposal, let the rest roll off. Letting them be a distraction from the work, even for a short time, probably isn’t worth it.

I've always thought the best place to defend my work is in my work.

 

I just wish someone would teach Buzz that the correct phrase is "could NOT care less."