Can I just say that that list of the 15 most overrated US writers made my day? (Especially the part about Junot Diaz.)
I see your point about contemporary--Amy Tan?--but a lot of what he has to say, at least with the fiction writers, is dead-on accurate. Even when he goes too far (I like Michiko K, but he's right about her limitations and tics), he's picking up on real attributes of their writing. The only one I think he got utterly wrong was Michael Cunningham, who does know Woolf better than Shivani and has her same experimental bent--witness his foray into sci-fi.
I don't know the poets as well, but I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a better summary of Billy Collins than the Seinfeld of poetry. Never were snark and schaenfreude so fun!
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I see your point about contemporary--Amy Tan?--but a lot of what he has to say, at least with the fiction writers, is dead-on accurate. Even when he goes too far (I like Michiko K, but he's right about her limitations and tics), he's picking up on real attributes of their writing. The only one I think he got utterly wrong was Michael Cunningham, who does know Woolf better than Shivani and has her same experimental bent--witness his foray into sci-fi.
I don't know the poets as well, but I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a better summary of Billy Collins than the Seinfeld of poetry. Never were snark and schaenfreude so fun!