Bookforum 911

This is not good.

I got an email from Bookforum, helpfully letting me know that their new issue was online, so of course I wasted no time in clicking right over.

The first thing I see are the feature articles in nice big type. Number one is:

Right Makes Might
KEVIN MATTSON on THE CONSERVATIVE TAKEOVER OF AMERICAN POLITICS

To say the least, not exactly what I read Bookforum for, but, okay, whatever, what's feature number two?

Voices Carry
LAWRENCE HILL on CIVIL WAR SLAVE NARRATIVES

Well, this isn't the most obviously literary topic imaginable, but it could have potential. But no. The essay is far more about history than art.

All right, our final feature:

Fiction and Political Fact
MORRIS DICKSTEIN on POLITICAL NOVELS

Okay! This one actually has the word fiction in the title, and it does more or less treat the fiction as fiction. Still, though a feature on political novels seems a little suspicious, given Bookforum's recently declared goal to matter more to the nonfiction crowd.

When I finish with the features, I move on down to the reviews, and this is where the bottom drops out. There are 14 fiction reviews. Now Scott, you say, fourteen's a respectable number. Yes, but the 25 allotted to nonfiction is an even better number. For comparison purposes, that makes 36 percent of this issue's reviews fiction.

Even worse, 14 is a decided drop from the previous issue's 18 fiction (and 18 non for an even 50-50 split), and also less than the February/March issue's 15 (17 non, 47 percent fiction), which also includes one feature on Roberto Bolano, and two others that collectively discuss six works of fiction spread out across two writers.

Now I respect where Bookforum has come from, and it needs to be said that it still generally provides better fiction reviews that you are likely to find elsewhere. And also, the nonfiction titles that Bookforum chooses to review tend to be the kind of nonfiction that interests me as someone who likes to read about art and literature.

But, nonetheless, I think Bookforum is definitely moving in a new direction, and it's not one I like.

Comments

[Imani]

*wails and gnashes teeth*

Maybe it's just a phase? A very short phase merely coincidental in its timing with the announcement about the shift in focus. Yes, yes, that's what it is...and perhaps I'll be able to change that US Right/Left feature that will no doubt be radically different from everything else countless other print publications have added to that compelling topic into a smashing article on Pierre-Jean Jouve if I just have faith...

[Daniel]

Well, that's a shame. Wonder who'll pick up the slack this time.

[Crassetor]

<a href=http://horny.hq-free-movies.com/movie.php><IMG>http://img173.imagevenue.com/loc1135/th_84408_171_122_1135lo.jpg</IMG></a> <a href=http://horny.hq-free-movies.com/movie.php><IMG>http://img206.imagevenue.com/loc359/th_84402_168_122_359lo.jpg</IMG></a> <a href=http://horny.hq-free-movies.com/movie.php><IMG>http://