I’m a bit behind on this one, but thanks to The Elegant Variation for the link. Dale Peck, everyone’s favourite professional asshole, has been interviewed by one of the (ugh) Book Babes.
I’m really not sure what to say about this. When I read Peck’s “last negative review” in Maisonneuve I was impressed by the lengths he would go to destroy a fellow writer (am I alone in thinking that literature is not a competition?), but I was even more impressed by the fact that his genuine love of literature came through on every page. This Q and A… makes him look a little sneaky, to be honest. When he says things like:
One of the problems with the discussion around my work is that it is somehow deemed
disingenuous when I say that I really think of the opinions I express in my reviews as solely my
opinions and I’m not concerned with whether or not they’re palatable to a large audience or with whether or not people agree with me. I consider this a very, very private venture, just like the novel, which I think will have meaning to a certain number of readers, but not many.
it becomes hard to take him seriously. You cannot tell me that he released a book called Hatchet Jobs and then expects us to believe that he’s surprised at, and even better, unconcerned with, his own popularity.
