WRITING A CRITICAL BOOK REVIEW

A wise teacher once told me that all literary criticism begins with whether or not the critic likes whatever he/she is critiquing. A critical review necessarily begins that way, too, in your (the critic’s) decisions about what you “like” and “don’t like” about the particulars of a text: The catch (the exciting complication, the challenge) is, of course, that your decisions will necessarily be based on your years of experience in reading and studying and apprenticing yourself to various mentors and instructors, as well as of listening to and considering the opinions of your peers.  

This critical review assignment allows you to flex your academic and creative muscles and show your mettle in assessing the literary value of a text—and in using your writing skills to produce a fine-tuned, precisely considered response that someone else will want to read.  BTW: That same “wise teacher” also said, “All writing is creative writing.”  

INSTRUCTIONS:

Choose your book and write original notes (not just notes from class discussions) in the margins. Write more of them than you think you’ll need.  

Find other reviews (published in nationally known magazines—Booklist and Choice are too short, so avoid those) of similar books. Read five of them carefully and make a list of them with bibliographical information. Note what sorts of opinions the writers are expressing—and how they are doing so. Consider also how this book compares (and contrasts) with similar published texts that you have read. Hints for finding reviews: Go to the UI Library Catalog website; type in “book review digest plus,” which will take you to an internet database. Then “click to access the resource.” Search by author. Study the example of “Grandpa Was a Cowboy” below. (Your review will be about three-fourths that long.) 

Take MORE notes on paper and think in terms of at least two parts:

A.    A brief summary of the contents of the book. For the two collections we have read, you will need to spend some time considering the book as a whole, as more than just a sum of its parts: i.e., how do all its parts fit together in terms of order, transitions from one to another, interrelated themes? In the memoirs, who are the key characters? what is the plot? (DO NOT REVEAL TOO MUCH INFORMATION OR THE ENDING.)  

B.     The bulk of your review will be your writing your academic opinion of the work. What are its strengths and weaknesses? When it succeeds, how, exactly, does it succeed? If it falls short, how does it fall short? Why should readers care about this book? Show the complexity of your response and, in doing so, the complexity of the book. 

SPECIFICATIONS:

750 words, typed, double spaced, stapled, 1-inch margins all around. Hand in the list of the book reviews you read with your review (the list will not be part of your word count). 

You are expected to use precise, well-edited, professional English and all the good stuff of effective compositions and rhetoric, including specific examples.   

Example: Susan Allen Toth, "Grandpa Was a Cowboy" (review of Mary Clearman Blew's All But the Waltz)