Why I Won't be Reviewing Ann Patchett's Next Book

A futile and stupid gesture that nonetheless is important to me.

My review of Ann Packer’s forthcoming novel, Some Bright Nowhere, set to appear in my Chicago Tribune column on November 16th (and filed before this incident), will be the last time I review or recommend a book published by Harper Collins or any of its imprints for the foreseeable future.

I’m making this choice as a gesture of personal protest at not just William Morrow’s (an HC imprint) decision to publish Scott Jennings’ A Revolution of Common Sense: How Donald Trump Stormed Washington and Fought for Western Civilization, but their decision to solicit me (of all people) for coverage of this book of apologies for fascism.

For those unfamiliar with Jennings he is the official Trump Stan on CNN panel discussions. He is also a practiced and confident liar. Here is CNN host Abby Phillip calling out Jennings for repeatedly lying in support of one of Donald Trump’s claims about Medicaid funding.

Here is Republican lawyer George Conway calling Jennings’ lies about Trump’s felony conviction “pathetic.”

Here is MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell calling out CNN and Jennings for his serial lying.

Here is Jordan Klepper on The Daily Show with a segment that features a supercut of Jennings declaring Trump unfit for office following the January 2021 insurrection, followed by Jennings stumping with Trump in Michigan in 2024.

Which time was Jennings lying? Does it matter?

Here is Trump’s blurb of Jennings’ book, which I’m absolutely sure are words he actually said.

As far as the handmaidens of authoritarianism go, Jennings hardly ranks next to Stephen Miller or Steve Bannon or J.D. Vance or that weird-ass pipsqueak freak rolling around Chicago in his humvee, dropping tear gas on school kids, Gregory Bovino.

Gregory Bovino, working hard to beat those Nazi allegations.

But in a way, I find Jennings more odious because his past comments clearly show that he is quite aware of Donald Trump’s authoritarian aims, Trump’s unfitness for the presidency, and the risks to the country of supporting such a man, and yet here he is, gleefully capitalizing on the ongoing human tragedies for fun and profit.

And here is Harper Collins choosing to put their marketing pitch filled with lies promoting Jennings’ lie-filled book into my inbox. I looked at this email just after seeing video footage of two ICE agents dragging a day care worker out of school in front of the children. It’s hardly the worst abuse I’ve seen these goons dish out, but the combination of the video and the Harper Collins pitch pushed me past a personal breaking point.

If I had someone to throw a Subway sandwich at, maybe I would’ve done that, but instead, I’ve decided to stop providing coverage or recommending books published by Harper Collins. If they don’t have the common courtesy to do 30 seconds of research on me before they send me that pitch, I don’t have the time to consider their books for coverage.

It’s important to note a few other things here:

1. I am not calling for nor organizing any kind of boycott. This is personal act of conscience rooted in my own combination of irritation and despair. I’m doing it 100% to make myself feel better by exercising some agency in the face of the offense I perceive. I’m a believer in the First Amendment. I have no wish to constrain the acts of publishers. I do wish that they wouldn’t publish books that they know are filled with lies, the same way I wish CNN did not employ commentators who they know are going to lie, but I neither have nor wish for control over those choices. This is me exercising my own agency.

2. My gesture costs me little other than the potential pleasure of reading some forthcoming books published by many of the outstanding imprints that operate under the HC banner who are blameless in this act. Fortunately, there’s plenty of not Harper Collins books in the sea.

3. There is probably no end to other publishers who are publishing books that do the work of normalizing authoritarians pushing for power, but as of yet, those publishers have not emailed me a marketing pitch full of bullshit suggesting I cover their pack of lies.

4. My gesture is both futile and stupid¹ as measured against the tangible outcomes. This will have zero effect on the reputation or bottom line for Harper Collins. I think I probably triggered a few unpleasant moments for some of the publicity folks at the company when I expressed the sentiments I’m writing about at greater length here via email, but this is the equivalent of complaining to the poor customer service agent trying to solve problems caused by people well above them.

5. The reason I framed this specifically around Ann Patchett’s next novel (coming June) is because it is to be published by Harper (an HC imprint) and it is the 2nd most recent book HC solicited me for coverage (prior to the Scott Jennings book) and also, people know who she is and maybe that draws attention. It’s got nothing to do with her personally. In fact, going through some of the books published by HC imprints that I frequently recommend makes me even more angry that I am cutting myself off from their wares, but I can be as spiteful as anyone, including to myself..

While my gesture is both futile and stupid as measured against the tangible outcomes, I believe it is worth doing anyway because of how it makes me feel in my interactions with the world at large. We cannot measure these gestures solely against the likelihood of a specific large objective.

For example, the Tesla Takedown protests did not succeed as measured against the goal to reduce Elon Musk’s cultural power and influence by tanking the Tesla stock. Elon Musk is on his way to becoming the world’s first trillionaire. But the protests are worth doing (and even continuing) as a way to bring together people of shared values to make themselves heard. There is no instant off switch for fascists.

I’m fortunate that I have this outlet to make myself heard beyond my snotty emails to Harper Collins publicists.

It probably behooves all of us to practice building our resistance muscles, to be a little bit louder when we experience something we believe to be beyond the pale. This is like one sit-up’s worth of practice, but it’s a start.

Links

This week at the Chicago Tribune I explore the strange and hypnotic novel Benbecula by Graeme McRae Burnett.

At Inside Higher Ed I talked to Marc Watkins to get the latest on how agentic AI browsers are now capable of going into learning management systems and doing work for students. Not a good thing. For Academic Freedom on the Line I state what I think is obvious, “AI is an Academic Freedom Issue.”

Here’s a great conversation between Lincoln Michel and Fisher the Bookseller about how books are chosen for stores (and other things).

At LitHub, Maris Kreizman makes the case for staying true to human produced work in the age of AI slop.

Working from this week’s link theme of the pernicious effects of technology, and via my friends McSweeney's “Our School District Can Now Keep Track of Your Child With Just Three Terrible Apps” by Talia Argondezzi.

Got something good you read this week? Share it in the comments for me and everyone else.

Recommendations

1. The Stranger by Albert Camus
2. Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li
3. Sula by Toni Morrison
4. All Fours by Miranda July
5. Love Me Tender by Constance Debre

Nompilo S. - Johannesburg, South Africa

I kid you people not the first book I thought of recommending is published by Harper Collins imprint, Amistad. It’s a good one too. Anyway, pivoting to Kiese Laymon’s Long Division.

For the teachers of English and writing out there, reach out if you’re going to be at the NCTE convention. I’m doing a “luncheon keynote” and some other stuff, and am eager to connect with as many folks as possible.

And for everyone, I hope you can find the futile, stupid gesture that makes you feel at least a little bit more powerful this week.

JW
The Biblioracle

1. This is a reference to a book, A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and the National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever.