Good Bad Reviews

Some reviews pan a book in such a way that you enjoy the review and find yourself unaccountably wanting to read the book despite its bad press.

Here’s a comment on Toby Young, gleaned from a NY Times review by William Grimes of Young’s latest book, The Sound of No Hands Clapping, (which I haven’t read, but I’m right tempted):

“Toby Young is a balding, bug-eyed opportunist with the looks of a punctured beach ball, the charisma of a glove-puppet, and an ego the size of a Hercules supply plane,” he quotes one British critic as writing. “And I speak as a friend.”

His previous book was, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (2001.)