Legal Commentary

Disproportionality in Publishing

By davidwanetick

I just finished reading The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews 1939-1945 by Saul Friedlander. This 663-page book documented many aspects of the Nazi's plan to eliminate Jews from the map of Europe. This thoroughly researched book was accompanied by roughly 150 pages of footnotes. What was amazing to me was that Professor Friedlander was completely objective. Not once did he discuss the loss of his parents in the Holocaust or his being raised by nuns in Nazi-occupied France. Currently, The Years of Extermination ranks number 6,544 on Amazon.

I compare this epic work to the lies and incessant pleas for sympathy that were elicited throughout James Frey's trashy A Million Little Pieces. After a little probing, Frey confessed that A Million Little Pieces was a collection of complete fabrication of events. This book was featured on Oprah (and to Oprah's credit she recalled Frey to her show and castigated him for the lies in his work) and received tremendous press attention and accolades. The publisher and the publishing profession took no responsibility for publishing this garbage and did not even seem to think that anything was wrong with what Frey did. Currently, A Million Little Pieces ranks 1,616 on Amazon.

The ability to discern quality of research and objectivity is clearly lacking among book reviewers.

Full post as published by Vertical Pulse on July 06, 2008 (boomark / email).