I've been thinking about weighing in on this, and almost withdrew quietly from the field because Kevin gave voice to much of what I was thinking, only said it much better.I'll add this: I think what most surprised me most about this review was the sweeping and somewhat snotty back-of-the-hand dismissal of "Mark Twain and Youth," and, perhaps, by extension, most of Twain scholarship. I certainly can understand a responsible reviewer taking issue with individual entries (and if mine had been one, I'd have no problem with that, having been on both sides of the reviewing game enough times). But he couldn't find one or two entries that were noteworthy? That met his standards of composition and scholarship? Really? None of them? Look over the list of contributors to that book and tell me if that's even remotely possible. Better yet, consider the caliber of the work in this book and tell me that a complete rejection of the volume is anything close to a fair call. If nothing in this collection worked for him, his argument comes down to, "This is complete trash, top to bottom, beginning to end, every topic, every chapter." If that is his rejection of "Mark Twain and Youth," then I must reject his evaluation. And this piece seemed to be coming from such a deeply personal place, I found myself giggling at the attitude and some of the phrasings (unintended irony, indeed). My overall impression was that this was the type of review that ends up telling us much more about the reviewer than what's being reviewed.
On Monday, November 5, 2018 4:18 PM, Alan Kitty <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Kevin-
Brought me to tears — all pleasurable.
Thanks
Alan K.
Sent from my iPhone
> On Nov 5, 2018, at 3:57 PM, Hal Bush <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Kevin, you da man!
>
> That was great stuff, I'd like to send it to Karlin in fact. I think you are correct, he dislikes Twain, plain and simple. You forgot to mention his claim, near the end, that Pudd'nhead is the greatest book (I know there are some PW fans on here, but please! at best it ranks in the top 5...).
>
> Very funny, thanks for the post!
>
>
>
> Dr. Hal Bush
>
> Dept. of English
>
> Saint Louis University
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> 314-977-3616
>
> http://halbush.com
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