It got dubbed a cross between, The Catcher in the Rye , and, Huckleberry Finn in last Sunday's NYT Book review, on the front page. For an artist takes pride in the uniqueness of his vision and the uniqueness of his ability to render it. Thus to be compared to another is not a compliment. To be compared to a combination of two is an even greater insult. Here he's accusing Russel Banks of reinventing the wheel.
Drugs mix a lot better with rock'n roll than they do with literature.
In other words, compared to Salinger, Banks sucks. Welcome to the liberal literary machine, folks. The Turth does not exist, and it's a good thing they did away with it, as it takes the pressure off. I thought it might be Toni Morrison, because she teaches at Princeton too. Sure enough, her name was on the back cover, but she wasn't endorsing it.