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
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
Samantha Harvey – The Western Wind
Diarmaid MacCulloch – Thomas Cromwell: A Life
Peter Carey – A Long Way from Home
Val McDermid – A Place of Execution
Richard Cohen – How to Write Like Tolstoy
John Sampson – The Wind on the Heath
Jess Smith – Way of the Wanderers
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
Annie Proulx – Brokeback Mountain
Anthony Doerr – All the Light We Cannot See
Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird
Colson Whitehead – The Underground Railroad
Amor Towles – A Gentleman in Moscow
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
Matthew Richardson 
Interesting, Matthew – but not my cup of tea at all, I’m afraid.
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Yeah I’m similar, Chris. It was worth a read but the hook wasn’t compelling enough for me.
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your review has piqued my interest in this writer; thanks Matthew: I would like to read her study of Berlin —
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That was the highlight for me, John. There was an interesting framing of the city as an international cultural hub (I had assumed it might be similar to other big cities in that rent hikes would have made it prohibitive to creative types).
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it was a good review, Matthew 🙂
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Thanks for the interview, Matthew. I especially appreciated your description of the author’s dwelling on Twitter spats as though they had literary world merit. What a waste of time!
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I totally agree – I’m not sure anyone comes away from a Twitter argument enriched!
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