Books Quote by Frederick Exley
““There was a period when I lived on book reviews, when I had basked and drawn sustenance from what I deemed the light of their intelligence, the beneficience of their charm. But something had gone sour. Over the years I had read too much, in dim-lighted railway stations, lying on the davenports of strangers' houses, in the bleak and dismal wards of insane asylums. That reading had forced the charm to relinquish itself. Now I found that reviews were not only bland but scarcely, if ever, relevant; and that all books, whether works of imagination or the blatant frauds of literary whores, were approached by the reviewer with the same crushing sobriety. I wanted to reviewer to be fair, kind, and funny. I wanted to be made to laugh.””
About This Quote
Source Book: “The Last of the Best” by Frederick Exley, 1971
The author reflects on how excessive, detached reading of reviews drained their vitality, making criticism bland and overly sober, and longs for humor and kindness in literary critique.
In simple terms: Too many reviews made criticism dull; desire humor and kindness.
Key Takeaway
Seek balance, inject humor into critique.
Themes
literary criticism
humor
authenticity
balance
creativity
Mood
reflective
melancholic
hopeful
Type
observational
philosophical
inspirational
When to use this quote
- personal reflection
- writing process
- literary analysis
Key Concepts
critical fatigue
intellectual saturation
artistic integrity
Questions to Reflect On
- How can reviewers stay fresh and humane?
- What role does humor play in criticism?
A Different Perspective
Reviews can become formulaic and lose relevance.
