Novelists reviewing novelists have obvious reasons for erring on the side of charity.
They know the agony of creation and the pain of having one s creation criticized. This, Mr. Caldwell thinks, is most unfortunate. I could offer the excuse that I m not in the business of appraising literary art. But that argument won t wash. The books I review in history, political thought, social criticism, and religion have to do with ideas, great and small, and surely ideas are as deserving of serious treatment as art.