Last week, as you might have heard, Alice Hoffman pitched a fit at the Boston Globe reviewer who panned her new book, going so far as posting the reviewer’s phone number and email address on her Twitter feed and encouraging her fans to “Tell her what u think of snarky critics.” Eesh.
Similarly, Alain de Botton slightly overreacted (check the fourth comment) to a review of his new book in the New York Times Book Review. He tells the critic, among other things, “I will hate you till the day I die and wish you nothing but ill will in every career move you make.”
Obviously this is childish, petulant behavior, but it raise a few question that are becoming more relevant in the age of the Internet: what is the purpose of a book review? Who are book reviews written for?
And then: when can an author complain (civilly) about a so-called “bad” review?
