[The New Statesman and Nation was a British publication that resulted in a merger in 1931 between the New Statesman and The Nation and Athenaeum, and is now apparently known simply as New Statesman. In any case, it’s hard to imagine that any magazine in Britain could seriously say that the country, at the time of the publication of Richard Wright’s Native Son–1940–was “away from that particular racial problem.”]
“The astounding thing is that the publisher is able to send out with the book a typescript about the weight of a Tor Bay Sole entirely made up of favorable reviews from the American Press. Over here and away from that particular racial problem the book seems unimpressive and silly, not even as much fun as a thriller.”
New Statesman and Nation
Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Mark's Text Terminal 