Queenan

Ronald Bergan's latest entry at the Guardian's blog: "Why Joe Queenan is wrong about Ingmar Bergman."

GreenCine Daily: Shorts, fests, etc, 4/2. 2007

Brooke Queenan is the veteran leader with a strong inside presence.

USATODAY.com 2006

Liam Alaric Queenan was part of the bucket brigade when blood drenched the streets of Jerusalem during the First Crusade.

Tracing My Roots and Coming Up With Dirt Joe Queenan 2011

Queenan proceeds as if this were a revelation of a carefully-guarded secret, but anyone who reads newspaper book review sections with any frequency knows that they are filled with reviews that are not just reflexively laudatory but are rhetorically empty in every way that might otherwise qualify them as "criticism."

Book Reviewing 2010

My great-grandfather Seamus O'Faolin Queenan briefly worked as a disreputable knife-sharpener and was named in a class-action suit by a man believed to be Jack the Ripper.

Tracing My Roots and Coming Up With Dirt Joe Queenan 2011

In the New York Times recently, Joe Queenan acknowledges that "the vast majority of book reviews are favorable, even though the vast majority of books deserve little praise."

Book Reviewing 2010

Queenan believes this happens because "Reviewers tend to err on the side of caution, fearing reprisals down the road" or "because they generally receive but a pittance for their efforts, they tend to view these assignments as a chore and write reviews that read like term papers or reworded press releases churned out by auxiliary sales reps."

Book Reviewing 2010

These organs have been dominated by literary journalists more attuned to the protocols of journalism than to those of literature, and by writers who proceed according to the precautions outlined by Queenan.

Book Reviewing 2010

Gail CunninghamKingston upon Thames, Surrey• Joe Queenan Film&Music, 22 April writes that Eric Bana's film contemporaries such as Johnny Depp almost never die on screen, or if they do, it's usually in a blaze of glory.

Letters: Revolutionary guard 2011

While neither of these explanations speaks well of American book reviewing -- even though Queenan does try to make excuses for it -- I believe the simplest explanation goes even farther in clarifying the problem with newpaper book reviews: Honest criticism can't be found in these pages because criticism itself can't be found there, for reasons that are inherent to the medium.

Book Reviewing 2010