How to write a review

Robert Pinsky talks about what makes a good book review by looking at a famously malicious review John Keats' Endymion received when it was published in 1818. The review was written with gleeful acerbity by John Wilson Croker. The review fails, not just because it savages a true poetic masterpiece, but because it fails to do what a review is supposed to do. Pinsky explains that there are three things a review should include:

1. The review must tell what the book is about.
2. The review must tell what the book's author says about that thing the book is about.
3. The review must tell what the reviewer thinks about what the book's author says about that thing the book is about.

It seems like a good way to do a review to me. I remember when I used to read Peter Travers' movie reviews in Rolling Stones, he once explained that the purpose of a movie review is to get people to the movies they're going to like. A review is not merely a platform for a reviewer's personal taste; a reviewer is not some sort of anointed cultural gatekeeper; a reviewer is just someone there to help potential customers.

Robert Pinsky talks about what makes a good book review by looking at a famously malicious review John Keats' Endymion received when it was published in 1818. The review was written with gleeful acerbity by John Wilson Croker. The review fails, not just because it savages a true poetic masterpiece, but because it fails to do what a review is supposed to do. Pinsky explains that there are three things a review should include:

1. The review must tell what the book is about.
2. The review must tell what the book's author says about that thing the book is about.
3. The review must tell what the reviewer thinks about what the book's author says about that thing the book is about.

It seems like a good way to do a review to me. I remember when I used to read Peter Travers' movie reviews in Rolling Stones, he once explained that the purpose of a movie review is to get people to the movies they're going to like. A review is not merely a platform for a reviewer's personal taste; a reviewer is not some sort of anointed cultural gatekeeper; a reviewer is just someone there to help potential customers.

How to write a review