The Review As Art And Communication

The Review as Art and Communication The Review as Art and Communication By Joey Skidmore The Review as Art and Communication, by Joey Skidmore This book first published 2013 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2013 by Joey Skidmore All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-4444-6, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4444-4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One ................................................................................................. 1 Introduction Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 37 The Book Review as a Special Form of Communication Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 40 Communication: A Classic Example Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 53 The Review as a Work of Art Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 57 The Reviews (and Review Essays) Chapter Six Conclusion ............................................................................................... 178 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION This book has two purposes. First, it examines the phenomenon of book reviewing, a topic that has received relatively little attention, despite the abundance of reviews and their obvious importance to publishers, authors, and scholars. Second, it compiles the work of one scholar, Max J. Skidmore, Sr., and uses the unified themes of my father’s work to demonstrate the potential of book reviewing—and all forms of reviewing— into its own special form of communication and art. A given review may receive enormous attention and generate considerable heat—and sometimes even light—but reviewing as an act seems generally to cross the borders of consciousness at will, evading the otherwise watchful scholarly sentinels who might be expected to generate theories at the first hint of an intrusion. This, of course, is in contrast to criticism, a related activity about which there is a large body of theory, discussion, and controversy. Significant works dealing with the art and craft of book reviewing exist, but they are scarce. Mayra Calvani and Anne K. Edwards devote their Slippery Art of Book Reviewing, essentially to instructing budding reviewers. To them, it would be quite useful. To us, its practical approach makes it less so, although still worthwhile for background information.1 Much more directly in line with The Review as Art and Communication is Academic Evaluation: Review Genres in University Settings,2 a collection edited by Ken Hyland and Giuliana Diani, well-known linguistic scholars. As with all collections,