The Critical I: Six Questions for Sybil Steinberg

AS PART of an ongoing series, the NBCC will be talking to book editors and critics around the country. We recently caught up with board member Sybil Steinberg, long time Publisher's Weekly critic and editor.

Q: How long have you been reviewing, and how has the reviewing world changed in that time?

A: I began reviewing for PW in 1976. When I became an assigning editor there, I was able to muster a large contingent of mature reviewers--many of them academics or specialists in genre fields--who were not only reliable but also committed to remaining a PW reviewer for years. As the decades progressed, I found that more and more young people eager to break into the industry were using PW as a first step. I attempted to get a commitment from new reviewers that they would continue to review for at least a year, but the turnover was much more frequent once they could establish PW as a resume reference. In fact, I went on record saying that my ideal reviewer would be over 40, securely ensconced in a career, and willing to review a writer's first book and at least several later works. My wish was to establish continuity, hoping that a reviewer could reference previous books rather than come to an author's work fresh each time. That said, I find that young reviewers today are by and large smarter, more versed in contemporary literature, and better able to express themselves than their earlier counterparts.

Q: What have been some of the stand out books you have reviewed yourself during that time?

A: American Pastoral; The Remains of the Day; A Flag for Sunrise; Mating; White Noise, Rabbit is Rich; anything by Paula Fox, several of Anne Tyler's early novels really, I would need days to think of all of them.

Q: Most of PW's reviews are in the 350 word range. Do you ever have wild dreams of 3,500 word tracts of space for yourself, or are you happy working in those parameters?

A: It's my guilty secret. For a long time I wrote reviews to the length that I felt the book required. In those longer reviews I was able to develop more subtle arguments than the PW format permits. Then I cut the reviews to 350 or so words. I saved those private reviews for my own ego, mainly, because often later reviews made exactly the observations that I wished I could have included.

Q: You must have an enormous library after all these reviews. How do you organize it? Do you keep everything? Do you keep the galleys? Do you alphabatize?

A: Oh, Lord, now I'll have to admit how disorganized my bookshelves are. Luckily, I live in a large house. I've just made a mental count of bookshelves. The library is floor-to-ceiling books, mainly hardcovers, many of them my early favorites--Virginia Woolf, lots of Henry James, most of Saul Bellow. The next room has a huge bookcase covering an entire wall, plus three other bookcases of three shelves each. Here hardcovers and galleys are mixed, largely by author, although not in an alphabetized fashion. Thus all the Updikes are together, and the Roths, and Mary Lee Settle and Paula Fox and Paul Scott, and Mordecai Richler, etc. Four upstairs bedrooms, plus a long hall, hold a total of eight bookcases, two of them covering entire walls of those rooms. In one of those large bookcases the books (mostly paperbacks) are double shelved; I have to remove the outer books in order to see the ones behind them.Then there are the NBCC books [to be judged for this year's award], in piles on the floor and on the large sofa in the guest room.

Q: Has anyone ever figured out your authorship of a PW review and written to you?

A: The answer is yes. I know editors in various houses who have been able to detect my "style," if indeed I have one, which is probably too bad, since my job was to make the PW reviews seamless and without obvious personality.

Q: What young novelists or short story writers have knocked your socks off in recent years? Do you see any trends in their writing?

A: It's tough to make a fair choice. I'm sure I'll think of many more young writers as the day wears on. Off the top of my head I can mention Jonathan Safran Foer (his first novel, not his second), and he brings to mind Nicole Krauss, whose novel I loved not realizing that they are married. I suppose that reveals something about my taste in fiction. Also Claire Messud, Edwidge Danticat, Allegra Goodman (though not her current novel), Katharine Weber, Kiran Desai, Andrea Levy and Elizabeth McCracken. And wow, the list is mainly women. What do they have in common? An amazing command of technique and a mature voice. What about the male writers? David Mitchell was new to me last year, and his voice is fresh and intriguing. Where are the new Charles Baxters, William Trevors, C.P. Snows, all of whom became my favorites because they found new ways of telling a story.

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