No Judgement | Book Review

No Judgement

Lauren Oyler

Virago Press

ISBN: 9780349016511

£20

‘It is the age of internet gossip; of social networks, repackaged ideas and rating everything out of five stars. Mega-famous celebrities respond with fury to critics who publish less-than rapturous reviews of their work (and then delete their tweets); CEOs talk about reclaiming “the power of vulnerability”; and in the world of fiction, writers eschew actually making things up in favour of ‘always just talking about themselves.’

Review

In his series of interviews with Dennis O’Driscoll, Seamus Heaney says that writers should not take account of anything said by critics who themselves have not written anything of note. Lauren Oyler is an established literary critic and less established author; as such, her book on being critical looks at the concept from a multifaceted perspective.

Oyler’s prose style is conversational and engaging. Hers is a world known to few and she effectively elucidates it for us, allowing us access to publishing politics and the life of a respected critic. She is at her funniest when smiling at her profession – ‘…not all [professional culture critics] are as snobby as I am…’ – and bringing us along with her. Perhaps the strongest essay is ‘Why do you live here?’ on her relationship with Berlin. I found this really insightful and the strange expat artist community in the German capital made for compelling reading.

I will admit to my reaction to other essays being influenced by what is perhaps a slight generational divide between Oyler and I. Her essays regularly regurgitate Twitter (or X) spats, incidences which would perhaps have more purchase on me if I were active on social media. As it was, I felt like I was being told about playground arguments during which no-one was hurt and after which everyone had a productive afternoon in class. I just didn’t care enough for the narratives to gain any kind of grip on me. Oyler’s way of referring to some of these spats almost as though they were cultural canon made me slightly queasy.

Some of the essays had less of a hold on me. ‘My anxiety’ read as though it was a straight lift from a bedside journal that a therapist had asked someone to maintain (necessarily lacking much broader insight), whilst time and again we return to the subject of Oyler’s associates, SOME OF WHOM TAKE DRUGS. We do this with the sort of awed reverence with which twelve year-olds emerging from behind the bike sheds and smelling of cigarette smoke are treated. This was quite dull and seemed to serve no other purpose than to frame her as edgy and subversive.

I’m glad I read ‘No Judgement’ but I probably won’t be returning to Oyler soon.

*Thanks for reading, folks. Find my other reviews below*

George Mackay Brown – A Time to Keep

Sarah Moss – Summerwater

Stephen King – 11.22.63

Damon Galgut – The Promise

Francine Toon – Pine

Robert Winder – Bloody Foreigners

P. G. Wodehouse – Very Good, Jeeves

Michael Palin – Erebus: The History of a Ship

Hilary Mantel – The Mirror and the Light

Maggie O’Farrell – Hamnet

Raynor Winn – The Salt Path

Samantha Harvey – The Western Wind

Diarmaid MacCulloch – Thomas Cromwell: A Life

Peter Carey – A Long Way from Home

W.C. Ryan – A House of Ghosts

Val McDermid – A Place of Execution

Richard Cohen – How to Write Like Tolstoy

George Orwell – 1984

John Sampson – The Wind on the Heath

Michelle Paver – Wakenhyrst

Jess Smith – Way of the Wanderers

Zadie Smith – Feel Free

Max Hastings – Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy 1945-1975

Bernard MacLaverty – Grace Notes

Ernest Hemingway – In Our Time

Andrew Roberts – Napoleon the Great

Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights

Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid’s Tale

Kamila Shamsi – Home Fire

Annie Proulx – Brokeback Mountain

Anthony Doerr – All the Light We Cannot See

Ellipsis: Three magazine

Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird

Jon McGregor – Reservoir 13

Colson Whitehead – The Underground Railroad

Amor Towles – A Gentleman in Moscow

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Matthew Richardson is a writer of short stories. His work has featured in Gold Dust magazine, Literally Stories, Close to the Bone, McStorytellers, Penny Shorts, Soft Cartel, Whatever Keeps the Lights On, Flashback Fiction, Cafelit, Best MicroFiction 2021, Writer’s Egg, and Shooter magazine. He is a doctoral student at the University of Dundee, a lucky husband, and a proud father. He blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com and tweets at https://twitter.com/mjrichardso0