Cover blurbs aren't reviews, they're advertisements that offer no space for balanced, nuanced positivity
Do you agree? And have you seen any over-the-top examples? Share them in the comment thread below
'The publishing industry might just be going a bit crazy' … Nathan Filer. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian
Recently I was at a literature festival, being interviewed by a man who hadn't had the chance to read my novel. It was fine. These things happen and we muddle through.
Unable to draw upon the themes of the work my kindly interviewer took to reading from the cover, attempting to bolster audience appreciation of me by quoting what someone else thought of my writing. He landed on a quote by the author Joe Dunthorne: "Terrific," Joe had said. "Engaging, funny and inventive." My interviewer grinned and asked how such a comment made me feel?
It may have been the heat. It may have been my irritation at the mother letting her child run around in front of the stage. It may have simply been ungraciousness on my part. At any rate, I felt the imp of the perverse take hold: "I should confess," I offered. "I've known Joe Dunthorne for many years. I think he owed me a favour."
Some tittering in the audience; my host barked a laugh.
"To be honest," I continued. "When he sent it, I considered pressing for more. Why not intensely engaging, riotously funny and, um-"
"Indefatigably inventive?" my host offered helpfully.
"Precisely! Where were the superlatives?"
I was joking, of course. Or was I? I thought about it again today when the post arrived. Post in our household has become considerably more exciting since my novel, The Shock of the Fall, won the Costa book award; in the last six months I have received 42 (I just counted) unsolicited novels.
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Unable to draw upon the themes of the work my kindly interviewer took to reading from the cover, attempting to bolster audience appreciation of me by quoting what someone else thought of my writing. He landed on a quote by the author Joe Dunthorne: "Terrific," Joe had said. "Engaging, funny and inventive." My interviewer grinned and asked how such a comment made me feel?
It may have been the heat. It may have been my irritation at the mother letting her child run around in front of the stage. It may have simply been ungraciousness on my part. At any rate, I felt the imp of the perverse take hold: "I should confess," I offered. "I've known Joe Dunthorne for many years. I think he owed me a favour."
Some tittering in the audience; my host barked a laugh.
"To be honest," I continued. "When he sent it, I considered pressing for more. Why not intensely engaging, riotously funny and, um-"
"Indefatigably inventive?" my host offered helpfully.
"Precisely! Where were the superlatives?"
I was joking, of course. Or was I? I thought about it again today when the post arrived. Post in our household has become considerably more exciting since my novel, The Shock of the Fall, won the Costa book award; in the last six months I have received 42 (I just counted) unsolicited novels.
More
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