Stride magazine has done me the honour of publishing a couple of reviews, Alec Finlay's Be My Reader and Skip Fox's Sheer indefinite. The results of which can be found here. First time I've done anything like this, and I must confess it was a nerve-wracking process at times.
You see, what's always puzzled me about reviews, and for that matter any sort of cultural commentary is that there seems to be a giant, studied indifference on the part of all reviewers that taste is subjective, I instinctively feel that all reviews should come with the disclaimer "other opinions may differ". Yet, for a reviewer to be a good reviewer I feel they need the ability to beconvinced that their view is the correct one, that to acknowledge the existence of divergent schools of thought is to show weakness, let cracks in the edifice of the reviewers unassailable opinion. No one reviews by consensus. This, for me,was the hardest part, the temptation not to scream "but don't take my word for it" every third line. It's a new way of thinking for me, some practice required.
You see, what's always puzzled me about reviews, and for that matter any sort of cultural commentary is that there seems to be a giant, studied indifference on the part of all reviewers that taste is subjective, I instinctively feel that all reviews should come with the disclaimer "other opinions may differ". Yet, for a reviewer to be a good reviewer I feel they need the ability to beconvinced that their view is the correct one, that to acknowledge the existence of divergent schools of thought is to show weakness, let cracks in the edifice of the reviewers unassailable opinion. No one reviews by consensus. This, for me,was the hardest part, the temptation not to scream "but don't take my word for it" every third line. It's a new way of thinking for me, some practice required.