The gloves are off in the Vulture Reading Room! In his latest dispatch, New York book critic Sam Anderson defends Charlotte Roche’s Wetlands after making a small concession: “Yes, Wetlands is — by mainstream bookish standards — demonstrably aesthetically terrible. Roche is a black hole of literary talent who has very likely set back the art of fiction by 200 years … It’s possible that the complete works of Jane Austen have already ceased to exist because of the once-in-a-generation canon-warping force of Wetlands’ total wretchedness.” Plus, reactions from Jessa Crispin, Ayelet Waldman, and our commenters. [Vulture Reading Room]
