Alex Good of GoodReports writes in Canadian Notes and Queries a long essay about book reviewing.

In George Orwell’s oft-quoted 1946 essay “Confessions of a Book Reviewer” he was already remarking how “the standard of reviewing has gone down.” In 1959 Elizabeth Hardwick wrote an essay on “The Decline of Book Reviewing” for Harper’s Magazine, much of which is still relevant today. But by the time of my “Defence” things seemed to be getting even worse. And in the five years since, the situation has scarcely improved. Review space has continued to shrink. Authors as various as Robert Sawyer and Philip Roth have publicly stated that book reviewing serves no purpose at all and should be done away with.[1] Every few months there are new revelations about the scandal of “reviews for hire.” Virtually illiterate columnists as far away as India have even been piling on. Like this, for example, from an essay (unironically) titled “Who Will Criticise the Critics?”:

“The book review itself cannot be missed. Either they are all-out gush or a nasal nasty. A book page is the newspaper’s cover-up of its corporate concerns with a pseudo-cultural cough. The space so sacred that nuances are martyred in the marvellous new world of cut-paste editing and the ensuing sloppy scribbles served sunny side down.”

Sheesh. I still can’t figure out that last sentence. Who will criticize the critics? One is tempted to answer “Damn near everyone.” And in particular the critics themselves.

At least they haven’t been rushing to our collective defence. Even well-qualified, responsible book reviewers have always felt their trade to be something vaguely shameful. Note Orwell’s calling his essay a “confession,” a point picked up on by Douglas Glover at the beginning of his 2003 essay “On Book Reviewing: A Recovery”: “Dear Lord, Forgive me my sins, especially my stint as a book reviewer for which I am heartily sorry.” And Philip Marchand’s introduction to his collection of essays and reviews Ripostes – “Confessions of a Book Columnist” – seeks to expiate the same sense of guilt. “At any rate,” he declares (I think a bit disingenuously), “I never asked for the job.” This from Canada’s only full-time book reviewer!