Newswire
Posted on May 12, 2022 at 10:52 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
We're betraying our age here ... but a recent New York Times story has us thinking of Weird Al's "Amish Paradise."
Specifically, we wonder anyone in a book-review brouhaha has unveiled the threat from that song: "I might have to get medieval on your heinie."
But enough '90s. Here's the story.
The Los Angeles Review of Books commissioned literary scholar Mary Rambaran-Olm to write a review of the book The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe by Matthew Gabriele and David Perry.
Rambaran-Olm had a few pieces of praise for the book, but mostly criticisms.
And ultimately, the LARB decided not to publish it.
Why? Well, that depends on who you ask.
Rambaran-Olm accused editors of killing the piece because of their friendship with the authors; the publication, in turn, has said they tried — but failed — to resolve some issues they had with the review with the author.
At any rate, the LARB recently posted a different review of the book, prompting Rambaran-Olm to take to Twitter.
And that's where things really got ugly.
The New York Times walks us through the drama surrounding this review of The Bright Ages, from deleted tweets to apologies to very cautious and neutral comments from the book in question's authors.
Related posts
Categories: Today in Books