Posted 8:20 PM by Gene

Jonathan Karp is as clueless as the industry he seeks to "reform." Indeed forgive our suspicion that he wrote this treatise after an evening reading (or trying to read) the fool Jo-NAH, his face turning beet red and his head swelling to three times normal as he beheld this NAZI EXTREME -- oh, never mind. Discounting this obvious inspiration for his dyspepsia we can see Jonathan has no more an idea about books than anybody else. Publish "works that will last," croons he. Isn't that what the literary end of the business is doing, churning out endless MAs from literature schools -- and isn't that why so much of "literate" fiction is knee-jerkingly ridiculed as dead and dessicated? The biz has always had its hacks, and it has always produced popular trash. Does anyone here remember The Story of Mankind? Heck, does anyone here remember Harold Robbins? That trash now dominates the book biz is in no small part a function of how its excellences have receded into their own little crawl space, and folks as small-minded and platitude-prone as Mr. Karp and his book buddies will only see that their space becomes more confining.

Jonathan Karp is a publisher who understands the value of innovation. In 2002, while an editor at Random House, he came up with the idea of commissioning a sequel to Mario Puzo's The Godfather epic. A national contest was held to select a writer. The winner -- Mark Winegardner, a little-known but critically acclaimed novelist -- came out with the well-received The Godfather Returns in 2004.

Very innovative, Jonathan. (And two-and-a-half stars and no. 38,369 on Amazon.com.)

(Via the "smart" CuteLittlePinkPaper.com)