Conflicts, Interest

You can’t review an ex-boyfriend’s novel: the ethics of serious criticism get in the way—clear conflict of interest, etc. But is this a rich, overlooked area in literary discourse?

I now wonder after reading Katie Crouch’s take on the novel her boyfriend was writing while they lived together (she fully discloses her connection, don’t worry). As you’d expect, she gives it a very close read. I mean, wouldn’t a scene in which a character “sniffs coke off of his pregnant girlfriend’s belly” sear indelibly into your memory too, if your then-boyfriend gave a reading of it to an audience that included both of your parents? The novel, by the way, is Occupational Hazards by Jonathan Segura.

A number of commenters on The Rumpus suggested an ongoing series by reviewers with egregious conflicts of interest. Excellent idea!

On a personal note, I loved this part that Crouch chose to pull out in her review:[Ex-boyfriend on] Relationships: “Easier…than picking up trampy young things at the bar. Which would require feigned interest in someone’s life.”

I’m not that trampy—or that young, I guess—but I met the author once at a cocktail party, and he asked if he could get me a drink—it was open bar; he was being polite—and then misread my hesitation, and felt compelled to spell it out for me: “Just to clarify, my interest in you is not carnal. I’m married.” Well, okay, I got it.