...Melissa Bank has just published her second book, The Wonder Spot, and it's kicking up a storm of name-calling among women writers who do and do not embrace the chick-lit label. Curtis Sittenfeld, author of "Prep," wrote a scathing review in The New York Times Book Review which started off: "To suggest that another woman's ostensibly literary novel is chick lit feels catty, not unlike calling another woman a slut - doesn't the term basically bring down all of us?"

'Rape victims talk about taking back the night. Well, we need to start taking back the book reviews.'

I think that might just be the most offensive thing I have heard all year. Your trashy chick lit novel didn't get reviewed by the New York Times, so you're going to compare your circumstance to a fucking rape victim? Holy fucking shit.

...

And just so we clear this all up: Chick lit is not reviewed in the New York Times for the same reason that Nora Ephron movies do not win Best Picture Oscars. It's because they both suck. Now, I'm not saying the New York Times Book Review is not sexist. It is. So are the Academy Awards. But for this particular complaint, it is not relevant.

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 12:09 AM  |