Reviewing the Reviews

August 25 - 26.

Publication: Tribune

Cover: "Assault. Murder. Corruption. The mob. DNA. Death Row. Does it all add up to a compelling tale in The Chicago Way?"

It turns out the answer is No.

"The Chicago Way does not sufficiently distinguish itself from its forebears to exist on its own as either great literature or essential popular-genre fiction," reviewer Adam Langer writes.

"[T]he novel's derivative and schematic nature deprives it of much suspense, and the intermittent references to classical philosophy and revenge sagas are not developed to the point that they give the novel the heft it could use to compensate . . .

"At times, I found myself wishing [author Michael] Harvey had heeded another of Heraclitus' tenets: 'To do the same thing over and over again is not only boredom; it is to be controlled by rather than to control what you do' . . .

"[T]he author rarely allows the reader more than a glimpse beneath his characters' surfaces . . .

"[T]he Chicago he writes about, much like the characters in it, never fully comes to life as a wholly authentic and readily identificable place."

So what the hell is this book doing on the cover?

Sure, some books deserve such placement by dint of their significance in the culture or the public forum whether panned or praised. This is hardly one of them.

The best the Tribune book review has to offer you this week is a novel it thinks is terrible that is in no other way worth your consideration. Tribune book review, you're fired.

Other News & Reviews of Note: No.

*

Publication: Sun-Times

Cover: Ike: An American Hero, by Michael Korda. Reviewed by Sun-Times general manager John Barron.

"Korda shows how a supremely self-confident Ike was never at a loss to exercise his expertise in organization, planning and logistics," Barron writes.

Other News & Reviews of Note: No.

*

Publication: New York Times

Cover: "Family Blessings," a review of Circling My Mother, by Mary Gordon.

Other News & Reviews of Note: "Lying and One-Night Stands: Women describe their transgressions, large and small." A review of Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave.

Sounds promising, doesn't it?

It doesn't deliver, unless you think skinny dipping and reading sex scene at a school assembly qualifies as bad girl behavior. Maybe in the 1950s, but c'mon. And these are writers?

*

CHARTS

1. Dog Chapman
2. Tony Dungy
3. Navy Seal

Alan Jackson's wife is 4th; God (the un-great one) is 5th; child soldier is 6th; Diana is 12th; Novak is 15th.