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Critical Mass: Four Decades of Essays, Reviews, Hand Grenades, and Hurrahs

by Wolcott, James | PB | VeryGood
ThriftBooks
(3933929)
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US $23.30
Approximately£17.25
Condition:
Very Good
May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend ... Read moreAbout condition
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eBay item number:376030384046
Last updated on 24 Jul, 2025 14:08:08 BSTView all revisionsView all revisions

Item specifics

Condition
Very Good
A book that has been read and does not look new, but is in excellent condition. No obvious damage to the book cover, with the dust jacket (if applicable) included for hard covers. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins. Some identifying marks on the inside cover, but this is minimal. Very little wear and tear. See the seller’s listing for full details and description of any imperfections. See all condition definitionsopens in a new window or tab
Seller notes
“May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend ...
Binding
Paperback
Weight
0 lbs
Product Group
Book
IsTextBook
No
ISBN
9780767930635

About this product

Product Identifiers

Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN-10
0767930630
ISBN-13
9780767930635
eBay Product ID (ePID)
203879510

Product Key Features

Book Title
Critical Mass : Four Decades of Essays, Reviews, Hand Grenades, and Hurrahs
Number of Pages
528 Pages
Language
English
Publication Year
2015
Topic
History & Criticism, Modern / 21st Century, Modern / 20th Century, Subjects & Themes / General
Genre
Music, Literary Criticism
Author
James Wolcott
Format
Trade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height
0.9 in
Item Weight
13.3 Oz
Item Length
8 in
Item Width
5.1 in

Additional Product Features

Intended Audience
Trade
Dewey Edition
23
Reviews
"Epically rewarding... Mr. Wolcott is among the last of the great, garrulous, generalist critics, equally at home writing about TV, movies, literature, music, comedy clubs, you name it... Critical Mass scoops up the best of his material from Vanity Fair , for which he has written since 1983, as well as pieces from outlets that range from The Village Voice , where he got his start in the 1970s, to The New Yorker, Texas Monthly and The London Review of Books , among others. It's a vacuum-packed anthology of tight arguments and shrewd observations... Few writers can nail a performance, or an artist's body of work, with more ecstatic economy." -- The New York Times "Mr. Wolcott's cultural criticism is ecstatic and alive, and this big box of his best stuff is absurdly entertaining -- a rolling series of intellectual lightning strikes. Pound for pound, sentence for sentence, for a certain kind of reader, this is the book of the year." - Dwight Garner's 10 Favorite Books of 2013, The New York Times "For the past forty years critic James Wolcott has been a cerebral antidote to the dullness contaminating our cultural pages... There's also tremendous value in [his] sharp-eyed seeing...in doing what critics have been doing from Aristotle to Walter Pater to Mary McCarthy to John Updike: enhancing, augmenting art and culture by helping to explain the complexity and dynamism in their DNA. Some of Wolcott's analysis forever tweaks how you see, hear, and read." --The Daily Beast "Forthright and fair-minded, but ferocious in disdain, with the sly, smart voice of someone in the know but never caught up in the moment, this collection...preserves an unforgettable of 'that New York speciality--the well-informed wise guy.'" -- Publishers Weekly "An eclectic collection that reasserts the author's reputation as one of America's most perceptive, candid and human critics." -- Kirkus Reviews "Wolcott is a wickedly cunning, agile writer with a special talent for quick-sketch characterizations... Critical Mass is the perfect bedside-table book because its short entries promise pleasure from even the briefest dips into its pages." -- Richmond Times-Dispatch From the Hardcover edition.
Dewey Decimal
814.6
Synopsis
James Wolcott's career as a critic has been unmatched, from his early Seventies dispatches for The Village Voice to the literary coverage made him equally feared and famous to his must-read reports on the cultural weather for Vanity Fair . Bringing together his best work from across the decades, this collection shows Wolcott as connoisseur, intrepid reporter, memoirist, and necessary naysayer. We begin with "O.K. Corral Revisited," Wolcott's career-launching account of the famed Norman Mailer-Gore Vidal dust-off on the original Dick Cavett Show . He goes on to consider (or reconsider) the towering figures of our culture, among them Lena Dunham Patti Smith, Johnny Carson, Woody Allen, and John Cheever. And we witness his legendary takedowns, which have entered into the literary lore of our time. In an age where a great deal of back scratching and softball pitching pass for criticism, Critical Mass offers a bracing taste of the real thing.

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