At The Daily Beast Noah Charney has a Q & A with the longtime head of The New York Times Book Review, Inside the NYT Book Review: 'How I Write' Interviews Sam Tanenhaus.
Unfortunately, there's relatively little about the inner workings (if one can call them that ...) of the NYTBR -- though Tanenhaus does note that, of the many books submitted for review: "We review about 1% of the total sent to us" -- which sounds about right (and reasonable, given the mounds of books they must get). (By comparison, about 25 to 30% of books received at the complete review are reviewed -- though not always in a timely fashion (and occasionally in far too timely a fashion, like when the book is not yet available in English ...); I also have the luxury of making a concerted effort not to get unsolicited review copies -- i.e. I try to only get books which I'm likely to review in the first place, something the NYTBR can't get away with.)
As longtime readers know, my personal beef with the NYTBR under the Tanenhaus administration is how much it favors non over fiction, and how little in translation is reviewed in its pages. Indifference at the NYTBR has, however, reached such a level that constant shooting-fish-in-a-barrel griping has grown quite tiresome -- but since the opportunity presents itself .....
In addition -- and always worth a mention -- as if the NYTBR's already extremely limited coverage of books in translation weren't enough, Tanenhaus has historically and very consistently favored books by dead people and/or books that have been previously translated -- Tananehaus' peculiar conservatism (death and the validation of a book being 'good/significant enough to translate again' lending a credibility he apparently can't finds elsewhere, something those "very smart colleagues" who select/vet the books are apparently fully on board with) rearing its ugly head.
So, for example, the lone review of a translated title in last week's issue was of recently deceased Carlos Fuentes's Vlad. The lone review of a translated title the week before ? Of long-dead Cicero's How to Win an Election, in Philip Freeman's new translation.
Okay, the week before that a couple of living first-time translated works were mentioned in the Fiction Chronicle.
The week before that ? not so much coverage of anything translated (i.e.: none).
The week before that ? not so much coverage of anything translated (i.e.: none).
The week before that ? not so much coverage of anything translated (i.e.: none).
(Do I feel like a broken record ? I do. But I'd suggest what's broken is the NYTBR's model for selecting what books to review. (I might add: among other things -- but that's a whole other can of worms .....))
Unfortunately, there's relatively little about the inner workings (if one can call them that ...) of the NYTBR -- though Tanenhaus does note that, of the many books submitted for review: "We review about 1% of the total sent to us" -- which sounds about right (and reasonable, given the mounds of books they must get). (By comparison, about 25 to 30% of books received at the complete review are reviewed -- though not always in a timely fashion (and occasionally in far too timely a fashion, like when the book is not yet available in English ...); I also have the luxury of making a concerted effort not to get unsolicited review copies -- i.e. I try to only get books which I'm likely to review in the first place, something the NYTBR can't get away with.)
As longtime readers know, my personal beef with the NYTBR under the Tanenhaus administration is how much it favors non over fiction, and how little in translation is reviewed in its pages. Indifference at the NYTBR has, however, reached such a level that constant shooting-fish-in-a-barrel griping has grown quite tiresome -- but since the opportunity presents itself .....
In addition -- and always worth a mention -- as if the NYTBR's already extremely limited coverage of books in translation weren't enough, Tanenhaus has historically and very consistently favored books by dead people and/or books that have been previously translated -- Tananehaus' peculiar conservatism (death and the validation of a book being 'good/significant enough to translate again' lending a credibility he apparently can't finds elsewhere, something those "very smart colleagues" who select/vet the books are apparently fully on board with) rearing its ugly head.
So, for example, the lone review of a translated title in last week's issue was of recently deceased Carlos Fuentes's Vlad. The lone review of a translated title the week before ? Of long-dead Cicero's How to Win an Election, in Philip Freeman's new translation.
Okay, the week before that a couple of living first-time translated works were mentioned in the Fiction Chronicle.
The week before that ? not so much coverage of anything translated (i.e.: none).
The week before that ? not so much coverage of anything translated (i.e.: none).
The week before that ? not so much coverage of anything translated (i.e.: none).
(Do I feel like a broken record ? I do. But I'd suggest what's broken is the NYTBR's model for selecting what books to review. (I might add: among other things -- but that's a whole other can of worms .....))