David Foster Wallace and “Blurbspeak” by Lucas Thompson
August 9th, 2015 - Los Angeles Review of Books
THERE’S NO getting around it: book blurbs are a much-maligned aspect of publishing culture. For many, the celebrity endorsements that feature prominently on the outside of books should be entirely disregarded, irrespective of author, since they bear no meaningful relation to the works they purportedly describe. Part of this cynicism is due to the dismal quality of many of these blurbs, which invariably seem to have been either hurriedly churned out, or else are wildly overblown in their claims.
After all, there’s only so many times a new novel can be described as “compulsively readable” or “dazzlingly imaginative” before such phrases begin to float free of all meaning. Readers’ skepticism toward blurbs is also due to suspicions about the integrity — or lack thereof — of such endorsements.
It’s hardly a secret that publishing houses frequently solicit blurbs in the attempt to increase sales, calling in favors and wheedling high-profile authors in the hope of receiving a glowing review. This perceived insincerity might be the most irksome aspect of many book blurbs, which prompted no less an authority than George Orwell, in his great essay “In Defence of the Novel,” to characterize them as “disgusting tripe.”
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After all, there’s only so many times a new novel can be described as “compulsively readable” or “dazzlingly imaginative” before such phrases begin to float free of all meaning. Readers’ skepticism toward blurbs is also due to suspicions about the integrity — or lack thereof — of such endorsements.
It’s hardly a secret that publishing houses frequently solicit blurbs in the attempt to increase sales, calling in favors and wheedling high-profile authors in the hope of receiving a glowing review. This perceived insincerity might be the most irksome aspect of many book blurbs, which prompted no less an authority than George Orwell, in his great essay “In Defence of the Novel,” to characterize them as “disgusting tripe.”
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