Bloggasm

Stephen Mitchelmore began writing online for Spike Magazine in 1996. Since then his writing has appeared in PN Review, The Washington Post, The Jewish Quarterly and Ready Steady Book. He’s also a regular reviewer for the TLS. He’s been blogging since 2001 and at This Space since 2004.

Simon Owens: How do you think your book blogging differs from your non-blog writing? For instance, would your review of Somersault by Kenzaburo Oe have been any different if you’d written about it in your blog rather than in the Washington Post?

Stephen Mitchelmore: It would have differed only at the level of formality really. The basic focus would have remained, which is very generally how a novel responds to the peculiar space opened by writing and its relation to the apparent subject of the work. As you might expect, blogging allows me to be more personal and digressive, much as Michael Dirda’s Book World column allows him the space to roam beyond the usual constraints of reviewing.

I also like to take issue with other reviews, which can’t be done within the limits of a short review. There seems to be a blind spot in most book coverage and I want to draw attention to it. Recently I was accused of being ‘out of touch’ with other critics and I was genuinely delighted; perhaps I’m on the right track. Actually though, I have struggled to articulate my approach in a formal setting and that’s probably why The Washington Post hasn’t asked me back. I wasn’t distinctive enough. They did ask me to review another novel, Christa Wolf’s ‘In the Flesh’ but, before the review was due to be published, the person who commissioned it left the paper and the review failed to appear. I wonder if those 750 words hadn’t been so formal and I had done a Dale Peck instead, it might not have been ignored. My casual feelings (I don’t mean my more honest feelings) were far stronger than those in the review. I thought it was one of the worst ‘literary’ novels I had ever read. No doubt if I had written the review for the blog instead, it would have been more distinctive.

Simon Owens: Do you think that internet reviews are more effective than print ones because the reader can read the review and then click through to Amazon to make an impulse buy?

Stephen Mitchelmore: Not really. I tend to read paper reviews close to a connection anyway! And the only effective review is one which enhances the reader’s sensitivity to the book under review and to literature in general.

Simon Owens: Do you think there are any key differences between American lit bloggers and European lit bloggers?

Stephen Mitchelmore: No obvious difference. The variety counters any attempt to isolate any distinction. Perhaps the major differences are that there aren’t so many of us in Britain and that we are marginal voices in book culture compared to the major US lit blogs. The mighty Mark Thwaite of RSB has done a great deal to redress that balance however.

Simon Owens: I’ve noticed that when a reviewer trashes a particular book, the author often responds on his or her own blog by counter-trashing the reviewer’s review. Have you ever experienced something like this for any of your reviews?

Stephen Mitchelmore: Not that I can recall. The nearest was Christopher Cleave, the author of “Incendiary,” responding with a comment when I wondered aloud (for purposes of extreme pretension!) whether his name was a pseudonym. Unlike all the other reviewers, I wasn’t as impressed with Javier Marias’ latest novel, but if he takes issue with my comments, I won’t be able to read it as his blog is in Spanish! That’s fine by me.

Simon Owens: What upcoming book publications are you looking forward to the most?

Stephen Mitchelmore : In late September 2006, Gabriel Josipovici’s Everything Passes (Carcanet) is published. I am really keen to find out how other people react to it, as it’s one of the most moving and inspiring works of fiction I have ever read. Its form is as moving as its content. I hope it will strike a chord with younger writers who can’t otherwise account for their dissatisfaction with the usual forms of fiction. Maybe after this they won’t resort to them so readily.

Then there are two translations by two great translators. Michael Hofmann’s rendition of Thomas Bernhard’s Frost (Alfred A Knopf), the one remaining Bernhard novel to be translated into English, and Charlotte Mandell’s of Maurice Blanchot’s late essay collection A Voice from Elsewhere (SUNY Press). And I’m quite looking forward to reading Richard Ford’s The Lay of the Land because I know very well the first two books in the Frank Bascombe trilogy and I want to find out what happens next.

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs you’d recommend to supplement the reading of your own?

Stephen Mitchelmore: Spurious
Ready Steady Book blog
The Sharp Side
Lenin’s Tomb
The Reading Experience

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