Book Reviews
"The critic, rightly considered, is no more than the clerk, whose office it is to transcribe the rules and laws laid down by those great judges... This office was all which the critics of old aspired to....But in process of time, and in ages of ignorance, the clerk began to invade the power and assume the dignity of his master. The laws of writing were no longer founded on the practice of the author, but on the dictates of the critic. The clerk became the legislator, and those very peremptorily gave laws whose business it was, at first, only to transcribe them."
----Henry Fielding, Tom Jones
I’ve never been comfortable reviewing books. I know all too well how hard it is to write them and write them well, how long it takes, and how much heartache the literary process often involves. It’s also hard to capture the public’s interest for a book, especially now that the outlets for literary criticism have shrunk so dramatically. When my first novel was published in 1971, I could expect, even for a first novel, something like 40 reviews around the country, since every newspaper of decent size had a book editor. That day is long gone. When I’ve been persuaded to act the critic, however reluctantly, I’ve always asked the reviewing agency, mainly the Washington Post Book World, if the book appeared to be good and worthy. For the most part, I’ve been able to praise the work, but not always, as you’ll see below. Also as is evident, I’ve done more reviews since 9/11. That’s partly an indication about how much catching up the American public had to do on the subjects of Islam and the Arab World. With The Last Apocalypse, Dogs of God, Defenders of the Faith, and especially Warriors of God, I achieved a measure of authority to judge other work. I always hoped I could be positive.
Articles:
"Four Books on Vietnam War Crimes"
Appeared in Saturday Review , Jan. 9, 1971. view PDF "Novelist, Revolutionary, Cultural Historian" Review of Malraux: Past, Present, Future by Guy Suares, appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education March 3, 1975 view PDF "A Black Sharecropper's Perspective on the South" Review of All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw by Theodore Rosengarten appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 28,1975 view PDF "I Come Before You as an Author Only" Review on Unquiet Soul: A Biography of Charlotte Bronte, appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 7, 1975 view PDF "The Return of the Family" Review of novels by Reynolds Price & Larry Woiwode, appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 3, 1976 view PDF "Enlightened Oppressors" Review of book by William Chafe appeared in New York Times Apr 6, 1980 view PDF "Dumbocracy in America: Studies in the Theatre of Guilt" Review of book by Robert Brustein, appeared in American Theatre Magazine 1994 view PDF “For Heaven's Sake” Review of Galileo's Daughter Dava Sobel Walker. Appeared in Washington Post Book World view PDF “The Church, Christian Soldiers and Popes” Review of A Concise History of the Crusades by Thomas Madden & Deus Lo Volt! by Evan S. Connell. Appeared in Washington Post , June 4, 2000 view PDF "The Templars" Review of the book by Piers Paul Read. Appeared in Washington Post, Oct. 29, 2000 view PDF |
"The Templars"
Review of the book by Piers Paul Read. Appeared in Washington Post, Oct. 29, 2000 view PDF “Hard Places” Review of The Rock by Kanan Makiya. Appeared in Washington Post, Dec. 9, 2001 view PDF "Too Late to Die Young: nearly true tales from life" Review of the book by Harriet McDryde Johnson. Appeared in Washington Post, 2005 view PDF "Peace Be Upon You: The Story of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Coexistence " Review of the book by Zachary Karabell, May 3, 2007 view PDF "Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East " Review of the book by Karl E. Meyer & Shareen Blair Brysac. Appeared in Washington Post, June 6, 2008 view PDF "God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe 570-1215" Review of the book by David Levering Lewis. Appeared in Washington Post, 2008 view PDF "GOD’S JURY" Review of The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World By Cullen Murphy. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for Wilson Quarterly, Winter, 2012 view PDF "ARMIES OF HEAVEN: The First Crusade and the Quest for Apocalypse" Review of book by Jay Rubenstein Appeared in Book Forum in Dec/January 2012 view PDF "Pointed Questions" Appeared in Wilson Quarterly, Winter Issue 2012 view PDF |