May
2006
To the
editor, New York , Times Books.
Dear sir:
To suggest that it would be possible to name one single
book "the best work of American Fiction of the
Last 25 Years" is demeaning to all authors by
its implication that art can be measured, or voted
upon, or decreed by a somewhat arbitrarily chosen
cadre of voting "judges." Further insulting
is the implication that only one work of many is worthy
of such elevation. For there to be even the semblance
of authenticity, every one of the "judges"
would have to have read every single work of fiction
produced during that time, not just those apparently
already decreed contestants by nature of their having
been reviewed favorably in the New York Times Book
Review.
Yours truly,
John Rechy
To
read additional correspondence from John Rechy to
the New York Times, The New York Review
of Books, and other publications, click
here to visit "A Writer Protests"—available
only on this website.

|