The Critical I: Six Questions for Chauncey Mabe

The NBCC recently caught up with member Chauncey Mabe, long-time book editor and critic at the South Florida Sun Sentinel, where it is among his job duties to always wear linen and drive a vintage Ferrari. We interrupted Mr. Mabe from his afternoon drive down to the beach to talk to him about the life of a book critic. He answered very slowly and never took his sun-glasses off.

Q: You review movies, television shows, the occasional music performance, and books. Which is your favorite?

A: Books have been my passion since the third day of the first grade. Even today, I read, as much as possible, one nonfiction book for every two novels. The reading joy afforded by a good nonfiction book, though different, can be as keen as what's available in any novel. And almost nothing compares to the deep pleasures afforded by a good novel, although the occasional movie, or TV production, or even popular music album, can come close. I'm thinking off ilms like Five Easy Pieces, or the first two Godfather pictures, or story-rich music like Lucinda Williams' first three CDs. The incredibly demanding and equally rewarding HBO series The Wire comes, I think, closest to providing the texture and complexity of a novel. I used to say it's better to read a bad book than watch a good TV show, and while I think there's still some validity to that, television has since, at its best, risen to levels I had not then anticipated. Sometimes I toy with the idea of retreating into the comforts of literary journalism, but I really enjoy keeping up with popular culture and having a pulpit from which to comment on it. It's kind of like crack cocaine to me....

Q: How does being a hillbilly affect your authorial voice, if at all?

A: Smile when you say that, pardner. I'm not sure my Southern Appalachian breeding has a direct influence on my authorial voice. That, I think, comes more from my reading, especially the reading I did before age 35. But there is a strong strain of oral storytelling in those mountains of Southwestern Virginia, and, as I'm personally a bit on the reserved side, I think it may come out most in my writing.

Q: You've done quite a few profiles over the years. Who did you enjoy talking to the most?

A: No single interview stands out. I greatly enjoy doing author interviews, which sometimes result in a feeling of real connection, like I've made a newfriend, however temporary. I'm aware this may sound unprofessional, but if anyone can tell me how to eliminate the human element from this job, please let me know. A few that linger in memory: Brian Aldiss, Jerry Pinkney, Eric Carle, Rust Hills, Rene Steinke, Elmore Leonard, Orhan Pamuk, Toni Morrison.

Q: As book editor, it seems you have to review across genres -- has that forced you to pick up some books you wouldn't have before, or did you have deep mystery, thriller, and crime tastes before starting the job?

A: The question about genres and literary quality is a tricky one, and I've been working it out my entire career. Certainly good work is done in the genres; indeed, as John Updike, Ian MacEwan, Paul Theroux and many other slumming novelists have shown, it's harder for a "literary writer" to author a good genre piece than the other way around. It's all literature to me. I loved sci-fi as a teen, to answer your specific question, and enjoyed spy fiction -- especially the great Eric Ambler -- but I wouldn't say I had a "deep taste" for genre books.

Q: Two years ago, your section began using more book-specific reviewers --as in reviewers specifically matched to the subject and cultural backgroundof each book. How is that working?

A: It's working as well as expected. A local newspaper is obliged to make a good-faith attempt to reflect the demographics of the audience it hopes to attract, and I think the Sun-Sentinel has done a superior job on that score. For me that meant finding, and in some cases developing, more local Caribbean and Spanish-inflected voices for the books page. The sad thing has been the fine, experienced, shall we say...monocultural reviewers...who have gotten much, much less work from me. This is unfair, and as a lifelong generalist and one-time freelancer, it pains me. But I've always been a big believer in affirmative action. I hope the scales will balance in the near future.

Q: Which writers would you consider your best discoveries in the last year?

A: I've been doing a lot more journalism, less book reviewing, so I haven't made the kind of discoveries I normally would in a year's time. But I've still found some new writers I like -- new to me, if no one else. The poet Richard Blanco (Directions to the Beach of the Dead) and the novelist Rene Steinke(Holy Skirts) stand out, along with memorists Diana Abu-Jaber (The Music of Baklava) and Jeanette Walls (The Glass Castle). The Library of America's collection of H.P. Lovecraft tales, titled, oddly enough, Lovecraft Tales, brought me back to a writer I'd enjoyed in adolscence--and left me with a much greaterappreciation than I remembered. I read Chuck Palahniuk's fiction (Haunted) for the first time, and found his transgressive craftsmanship is all it's cracked up to be. And finally, the photographer Jimm Roberts finally published his long-gestating project, Southernmost Art and Literary Portraits: Fifty Internationally Noted Artists and Writers in the South (Mercer University Press); it's not only a superlative example of literary photography, but also thechronicle of a passing generation.

Q: How long can a critic work at a paper? Forever? Does it wear in like a glove or do frequent changes help critics pick up new influences?

A: Not to sound too cliched, but it seems obvious to me it's possible to put down roots without going to seed so long as you retain passion for the work. I'll admit that professionalizing my love of reading has not been a wholly ennobling experience, but in my case 4 things have saved me: The pulpit this job givesme from which to exercise my congenital contrariness; the freedom I have to write about other cultural matters, which keeps things fresh; the fact I remain first a reporter, then a critic, which grounds me in a practical craft; and that rare book -- not always the most technically accomplished-- that reminds me of the pure joy of reading I developed in the first grade.

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