Readers across America (or along a portion of the eastern seaboard, at any rate) seem to agree with me about Walter Kirn's April 18 review of Ian McEwan's latest novel. At least, all four letters to the editor printed in this mornings New York Times Book Review criticize his review sharply.
From Pennsylvania, Ms. Robinson and her husband spent a weekend reading Solar and laughing. He called it a "delicious romp." She says, "The novel we find so smart and hilarious bears no resemblance to the one Walter Kirn described...."
The author of the letter from New York "was seriously taken aback by Walter Kirn's review...The tone was so venomous and vitriolic, it read as if a personal vendetta were taking place on the front page...."
In Virginia, the letter writer was thankful that she'd already read Solar because Kirn "relentlessly...exposed significant plot turns...that extend well into the book's heart."
The writer from Massachusetts says she has "been reading book reviews for 48 years, and I don't recall another quite as hate-filled as his."
Jealousy on Kirn's part was what I posited; nothing in these letters is inconsistent with that.
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