NY Times Trashes David Guterson

As we mentioned a week ago, former SW writer Bruce Barcott had nice things to say in his New York Times review of Bainbridge Islander David Guterson's new novel, The Other. Now the Times' lead critic, Michiko Kakutani, is having her say, and it isn't pretty. In fact, the review reads like a complete rebuttal of Barcott's prior take. I've always found it weird that the NYT often reviews the same book twice--and with such wildly differing results.

The Other is about the friendship between two Seattle pals who first meet at a place a lot like the Lakeside School in the '70s. One ends up a teacher, not unlike Guterson. The other ends up like Ted Kaczynski. Thus, Barcott writes of the book:

"The Other is a moving portrait of male friendship, the kind that forms on the cusp of adulthood and refuses to die, no matter how maddening the other guy turns out to be. It’s also a finely observed rumination on the necessary imperfection of life — on how hypocrisy, compromise and acceptance creep into our lives and turn strident idealists into kind, loving, fully human adults."

As for Kakutani, she says Guterson is basically lifting the story of Chris McCandless told by Jon Krakauer in Into the Wild. Thus:

"It’s hard for the reader to understand why Mr. Guterson--the author of the critically acclaimed and highly original 1994 best seller Snow Falling on Cedars--would want to reinvent such a well-known and well-told story. And while he has created an engaging enough voice for his narrator, Neil Countryman, much of his novel feels derivative and overly familiar."