THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 5‘Utopia Avenue’
TO THE EDITOR:
Daniel Mendelsohn’s July 12
review of David Mitchell’s
“Utopia Avenue,” which turns
into a consideration of all of
Mitchell’s work (eight monumen-
tal books condensed into a few
pages), sounds like a bunch of
sour grapes to me. I often won-
der about the arrogance it must
take to pass off one’s own opinion
and taste as some ultimate cul-
tural guideline.
Case in point: Mendelsohn
writes about my favorite book,
“The Bone Clocks,” that “the
structural intricacies here are
exhausting rather than involv-
ing, and the flirtations with the
fantastical come off as silly
rather than provocative.” Really?
Does my deep engagement with
the novel’s central character,
Holly Sykes, make me a dunce or
just gullible? Maybe Mitchell’s
creation of Richard Cheeseman,
the book’s smug literary critic,
hit too close to home?
On the Book Review podcast,
Mendelsohn said that when
writers have reached the end of
their originality, they can “sort of
flail, and try to do more extrava-
gant gestures in order to feel that
you’re still being creative.” But
Mitchell’s not flailing; he’s still
expanding.
HELIA RETHMANN
NASHVILLE
TO THE EDITOR:
What a pleasant surprise it was
to see in Daniel Mendelsohn’s
review of “Utopia Avenue” the
courage to provide criticism of
the old-fashioned sort: an intelli-
gent and incisive breakdown of
Mitchell’s work that pulled no
punches. Although my own
views on Mitchell’s recent efforts
differ somewhat from Mendel-
sohn’s, I was nevertheless de-
lighted to find that there remain
some critics who appear to be as
tired as I am of the endless pa-
rade of puff pieces that plague
our esteemed literary reviews. I
hope that others (both writers
and readers) surprised by the
sight of a less than hagiographic
piece in 2020 might recall the
wisdom of H. L. Mencken — who
reminded us that all of the bene-
fits he ever got from the critics of
his work came “from the destruc-
tive variety.”
HAMISH R. MCCORMACK
BROOKLYN
TO THE EDITOR:
Although Daniel Mendelsohn’s
review of David Mitchell’s latest
novel, “Utopia Avenue,” featured
a thoughtful analysis of the
“Mitchellverse,” I was disap-
pointed that you chose to reveal
his latest book’s finale and detail
its climax.Reviewers generally know
better than to spoil the ending of
an eagerly anticipated work and
rightfully tend to skimp on de-
tails when describing major plot
points. A review of “The Empire
Strikes Back,” for instance,
should only hint at “an important
secret about Luke’s parentage,”
rather than spoiling the big re-
veal.
I have not read the book yet,
so I must reserve judgment as to
the quality of Mitchell’s latest
work. I can, however, state that
the conclusion of Mendelsohn’s
review missed the mark. If you
believe a book does not merit
reading, by all means, say so, but
please do not ruin it for the rest
of us.
GEOFFREY L. WERTIME
NEW YORKTO THE EDITOR:
In his review of David Mitchell’s
“Utopia Avenue,” Daniel Mendel-
sohn finds it implausible that a
factory worker would ever say
the words “Call me. Or repent at
your leisure.” I have two re-
sponses to this: First of all, “re-
pent at your leisure” is not ex-
actly Nabokov or Joyce in com-
plexity. Second of all, let’s please
not assume that factory workers
are incapable of reading, or of
language acquisition.
The following is a list of jobs
held by famous authors before
they attained published glory:
Margaret Atwood was a coffee
shop counter worker; Raymond
Carver worked as a janitor and a
deliveryman; Herman Melville
was a cabin boy; John Steinbeck
worked at a warehouse; Richard
Wright was a postal clerk;
Harper Lee was an Eastern
Airlines reservations clerk; and
Jack Kerouac was, at various
times, a gas station attendant
and a construction worker.
They all probably found these
jobs grueling, yet useful to an
aspiring writer.
DAVID ENGLISH
ACTON, MASS.[email protected]The Times welcomes letters from
readers. Letters for publication
should include the writer’s name,
address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for length
and clarity.Letters
JIM STOTEN“In an era when facts are too often
disdained and discarded, Paul Krugman
wields them like a rapier. A brilliant scholar
[whose] incisive columns are a beacon for anyone
who cares about public policy and progressive change.”
—DAVID AXELROD“The most celebrated economist
of his generation.” —The EconomistW. W. Norton & Company
Independent Publishers Since 1923 • http://www.wwnorton.com—DAVID CAY JOHNSTON
ECONOMICS, POLITICS, AND THE
FIGHT FOR A BETTER FUTUREWINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE