_
Writing: Reviews
re•view
verb
to write a critical appraisal of (a book, play, movie, etc.) for publication in a newspaper or magazine.
re-
a Latinate prefix meaning again, back, or against.
I started writing reviews late in high school for the basest reason imaginable: to feel as though I had taste and opinions and authority worth promulgating. By that point I was already familiar with the important reviewers of my time—Kakutani, Tommasini, Wells—and my mother was an assiduous Yelp writer as well. My first review was of one of my favorite novels, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, for a school assignment; though it is a little overeager, and certainly more essaystic than journalistic (it was for school, after all), it still stands as one of my favorites among my own.
But beyond the so-called "critical appraisal," the experience of actually writing a review taught me how, quite literally, to re-view: to consider, one more time and more carefully, the books, concerts, theater, and more which I so enjoy—and to question why I enjoy (or don't enjoy) them. People often say journaling helps them to think carefully about their day; reviewing the arts serves the same function, albeit in a more structured manner than most journals.
I've decided to share these reviews, not (only) to possibly suggest the next concert you might attend or book you might read, but to show you more of myself: of what moves me to laughter, to groans, to tears. I hope my reviews evoke for you the experiences with the arts that I have been so lucky to have.
_
_
_
_