Negative Book Reviews

Rafia Zakaria called for the revival of the negative book review, lamenting:

“The general tone and tenor of the contemporary book review is an advertisement-style frippery… Absent in either is any critical engagement, let alone any excavation of the book’s umbilical connection to the world in which it is born.”

Contrast that, she says, with the reviews from 5 decades back:

“World reviewers and critics were feared as “persons of dangerous acerbity” who were “cruel to youth” and (often out of jealousy) blind to the freshness and importance of new work.”

A part of this modern-day trend has to do with overdone political correctness, writes Zakaria, “the idea that all Native American or Muslim American women must be praised for the very fact of publishing a book”. All of which is why she calls “against forced and foppish praise, where everything is good and so nothing at all is good”.

I think her call for the revival of negative book reviews is too little, too late. In his terrific biography of Amazon titled The Everything Store, Brad Stone describes the publishing industry’s reaction to the Amazon’s then new(!) idea of allowing buyers to post their reviews on the books they had purchased:

“(Founder Jeff) Bezos later recalled getting an angry letter from an executive at a book publisher implying that Bezos didn’t understand that his business was to sell books, not trash them.”

It was a philosophical difference that, when executed the way Amazon would go on to do, would drive a stake through the hearts of many competitors. Here’s how Bezos describes that difference in mindset:

“We don’t make money when we sell things. We make money when we help customers make purchase decisions.”

Better purchasing decisions. Which translates into calling out what is good and what isn’t.

And that brings me to the second reason why negative book reviews in publications won’t make a difference anymore. Reviews are subjective; what I like may not appeal to you. A publication’s book review has to go one way or the other: good, bad, indifferent. And regardless of their take on the book, there will always be people who don’t agree. After all, there is no such thing as the “correct assessment” of a book.

Which brings me to the last reason. Since views are subjective, what I really want to know is what people with similar tastes as mine thought about the book. A publication cannot tell me that, whereas Amazon can. People who liked this also bought…

So Zakaria’s call for negative book reviews, while well intended, is a case of closing the gates after the horses have bolted. Decades ago.