Book reviews

Successful book reviews answer three questions: What did the writer of the book try to communicate? How clearly and convincingly did he or she get this message across to the reader? Was the message worth reading?

People who read a book review want to know… if a particular book is worth reading before buying or reading it. They want to know the book’s subject and its strengths and weaknesses

A book review should include: 1. Enticement 2. Examination 3. Elucidation 4. Evaluation

Enticement Your first sentence should entice people to read your review. A crisp summary of what the book is about entices your reader The opening statement can be engaging and “catchy”

Examination Your book review should allow the reader to join you in examining the book. Tell the reader what the book is about.

Elucidation Clarify the book’s value and contribution to a particular discipline or a general knowledge of the subject (1) what the author is attempting to do? (2) how the author’s work fits current similar efforts? (3) Who is the author?

Evaluation 1. How complete and thorough is the author’s coverage of the subject? 2. How carefully is the author’s analysis conducted? 3. How does this book compare with others on the subject? 4. Who will enjoy or benefit from this book?

An example STIFFED: THE BETRAYAL OF THE AMERICAN MAN. Susan Faludi.

Enticement WHAT is expected nowadays of an American boy when he enters manhood? At once too much and too little, thinks Susan Faludi, a prize-winning journalist who has written a remarkable but ultimately flawed book on the current predicament of the American male.

Examination Her answer is roughly as follows. A consumer- driven economy and an image-obsessed culture have emasculated American man, rendering him “a caricature of a patriarchal image”, a mere “performance of masculinity”… Post- industrialism denied them the satisfactions of productive labour, robbed them of community and obliged them to live in an egotistical society “drained of context”…

Elucidation She contrasts a robust old order (patriarchy, community and work) with a demoralized new one (dandification, me-ism and shopping). Her previous book, “Backlash” (1992), was a tightly presented… catalogue of false charges and misrepresentations about the women’s movement. In some sense “Stiffed” is a follow-up…

Evaluation For all its strengths, “Stiffed” suffers as social history from trying to explain too much in one breath… As psychology, the book relies heavily on speculation… Ms Faludi is obviously on to something… but to suggest a “crisis” is overblown. On many indicators American men are doing very well.