There is so much injustice in the world. And maybe you’ve been too preoccupied with cops getting away with killing citizens or women being fired because they’re pregnant to realize that the Worst. Thing. Ever. just happened to novelist Ayelet Waldman. After getting a really great review in The New York Times for her book Love & Treasure, Waldman was then viciously and heartlessly snubbed by not being included in the Times 100 Notable Books of 2014.
Feel her pain:
I am really not dealing well with having failed to make the @nytimes notable book list. Love & Treasure is a fucking great novel IISSM.
— Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) December 2, 2014
I never complain about this shit, but there are MANY books on that notable list with reviews that were NOWHERE near as good as mine.
— Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) December 2, 2014
Sometimes “being a writer” totally sucks. If it weren’t for the actual writing, I think I’d go back to being a criminal defense attorney.
— Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) December 2, 2014
I mean. Why do I bother? I could write a fucking journal.
— Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) December 2, 2014
Yes, journal writing seems like something she would excel at.
As you can tell by trying to click the links in the tweets above, Waldman has since deleted these and other tweets railing against her horrible treatment (our fuzzy top image is a mere screen-grab from this page, where you can read the full rant). So I guess we won’t be seeing a #GreatReviewsMatter hashtag.
As her tantrum subsided, she did acknowledge that “There are real problems in the world. I’m just going to suck it up and do something good for someone else.” At which point she heroically offered to donate a dollar to charity for every pre-order someone makes of her book.
I was going to pre-order it myself, but I heard it wasn’t very notable.
-Michael Moats