Michiko Kakutani

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New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani.
New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani.

Michiko Kakutani (角谷 美智子 Kakutani Michiko?, born January 9, 1955) is a Japanese-American Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for the New York Times.

Contents

[edit] Biography

The only child of noted Yale mathematician Shizuo Kakutani, Michiko Kakutani was born in New Haven, Connecticut. She received her B.A. in English literature from Yale University in 1976.[1] After graduation she initially worked as a reporter for The Washington Post, and then for TIME magazine from 1977-1979. In 1979, she joined The New York Times as a reporter.[1]

Kakutani has been a highly influential literary critic for The New York Times since 1983.[1] She is best known for her book reviews. Her eviscerations of some prominent authors have garnered both attention and, on occasion, criticism. She has been known to write reviews in the voice of movie or book characters, including Austin Powers[2], Holden Caulfield[3], Elle Woods of Legally Blonde[4], and Truman Capote's character Holly Golightly.[5]

[edit] Criticism

Salman Rushdie has called her "a weird woman who seems to feel the need to alternately praise and spank."[6] In a June 2005 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, author Norman Mailer criticized Kakutani as a "one-woman kamikaze" (Kakutani is of Japanese descent) who "disdains white male authors" and deliberately "bring(s) out your review two weeks in advance of publication. She trashes it just to hurt sales and embarrass the author." Mailer also said that New York Times editors were "terrified" of Kakutani, and "can't fire her" because she's "a token," "an Asiatic, a feminist."[7]

On July 19, 2007, The New York Times published a pre-release story written by Kakutani about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. An account of the ensuing controversy, including the critical comments of some Harry Potter fans, can be found on the Times Public Editor's blog. [8]

Kakutani was criticized for her alleged overuse of the word limn in her reviews.[9] She was also parodied in the essay "I Am Michiko Kakutani"[10] by one of her former classmates, Colin McEnroe.

[edit] Media references

  • She was referred to in an episode of the show Sex and the City titled Critical Condition written by Alexa Junge, in which Carrie Bradshaw releases a book that Michiko Kakutani reviews. In the episode, various characters deem her name "too hard to pronounce", with character Miranda Hobbes memorably dismissing her, when Carrie has an apprehension about her review.[11]
  • There was a reference to her also in an episode of The OC, for having reviewed a novel based on Taylor Townsend's fling with a French ex-lover. "So Michiko Kakutani called it a 'sexual epic', which I think is a real stretch."
  • In the 1981 John Updike novel Bech is Back, Kakutani profiles the fictional author Henry Bech.

[edit] Awards


[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d 1998 Pulitzer Prizes - CRITICISM - Biography. Retrieved on 2007-07-09..
  2. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (2002-07-23). Hipoisie and Chic-oisie And London Had the Mojo. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.
  3. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (2005-08-23). Who's Afraid of Holden Caulfield?. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.
  4. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (2005-06-19). Digging For Gold In Stilettos And Silk. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.
  5. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (2005-10-24). Tru, Dear, There's Only One Holly. Moi.. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.
  6. ^ Marcus, James. "Rock of Ages". Retrieved on 2007-07-08.
  7. ^ Brinkley, Douglas (30 June-14 July), “Norman Mailer: The Last Buccaneer Looks Back”, Rolling Stone 977/978: 84-85, 88, 90, 92, 94-95, 162, 166. 
  8. ^ http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/did-the-times-betray-harry-potter-fans/
  9. ^ Gross, Matt. One Life to Limn by Michiko Kakutani. New York Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.
  10. ^ McEnroe, Colin (1999-01). I Am Michiko Kakutanii. McSweeney's. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.
  11. ^ Waters, Juliet (2005-10-13). Candace Bushnell moves from chick lit to fem lit with Lipstick Jungle. Montreal Mirror. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.

[edit] External links

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