Michiko Kakutani Grabs for the Brass Ring
Even Norman Mailer would have to appreciate today’s offering from Michiko Kakutani, where she channels Holden Caulfield in order to write about Ben Kunkel’s new book “Indecison.” Her review is written entirely in the inimitable style of the iconic Caulfield, and so it is with his voice that she cops to using massive amounts of drugs.
“If you really want to hear what I think about this guy Dwight Wilmerding, the first thing I should tell you is that he kind of reminds me of me,” she says at the outset, dropping some expertise on Ecstasy (using the oft-impugned variant “ironical“), and going on to validate Kunkel’s description of rocking a wicked high:
…I’ve gotta say that Dwight (or this Mr. Kunkel, who turns out to be pretty great at channeling old Dwight’s thoughts) does a swell job of describing what it’s like to be high – on weed or Ecstasy or this South American hallucinogen that makes everyone puke their guts out before transporting them to nirvana or whatever you want to call Drug Heaven.
Says the tipster who alerted us to Kakutani’s habit: “No wonder she read Harry Potter a day before it was released. She’s on speed.”
Which could also explain why she felt compelled to gush out what looks to be the entire plot. It’s okay, we weren’t going to read it anyway; we’re still going through the first edition of “Hard News” with a magnifying glass so we can take Mnookin to task for every one of those corrections.
