I'm Not Reviewing (Yet) The New New York Times Book ReviewEditor

The following article in the New York Observer (the choicest place on the web for news of the publishing world) profiles the new editor of the NYTBR, Sam Tannehaus.

I'm not reviewing this choice since one should always give people in new positions time to show themselves. But I am not optimistic, particularly for the fate of poetry in the NYTBR. The profile doesn't even mention poetry, despite the undoubted fact that New York remains the capitol of poetry in the US (though on a per capita basis, SF is not far behind, and Boston remains a center in my map of poetry). Equally worrying is that Tanehaus has made his career writing about neoconservatives and conservatives, most notably Whittaker Chambers who may be the most famous Communist apostate (but not a Bolshevik as the article says, since you could only be one in the Soviet Union). But since he is friends with Eric Alterman, the best scold of the media from the left, and he claims to be a moderate, I will wait until I see the new New York Times Book Review. In the meantime, for good reviews, pick up the new Bookforum, Harper's, and The Believer. All these are fighting the good fight to make literary reviewing substantive and comprehensive, rather than market-driven and conservative (as the NYTBR has been under Charles McGrath, an ex-student of Harold Bloom, if you want to get into literary conspiracies).