Drew continues his longwinded (err, “in-depth”) interview with Ron Charles who works for the Washington Post. Clearly, Drew wants his job. After his interview, Charles has nothing to worry about.
When last we left Washington Post book critic Ron Charles, he was sitting for the sculpting of his marble bust to be placed in the soon-to-be-built pantheon of Greatest Book Reviewers of All-Time. Charles also provides the book report on CBS’ Sunday Morning show which makes him much more famous because he has appeared on TV, and it’s possible that my 103-year-old grandmother has seen him.
Before doing actual TV, Charles did a number of video book reviews for The Washington Post which I attempted to mimic as the first video book reviewer in the 139-year history of The Free Lance-Star newspaper. Here is one of my favorites from Charles.
In our interview, we talk about his video book reviews, and he patiently explains that just because I considered him my muse for my forays into video book reviewing he doesn’t have to watch any of my video book reviews even if they were often linked on The Richmond Times-Dispatch web site which his reviews never were because I was obviously the better video book reviewer. It had nothing to do with The Washington Post being independently owned by Jeff Bezos and not Lee Enterprises which owns every other newspaper in the United States and allowed my video book reviews to be provided as free content throughout the Commonwealth. Charles was kind enough to sit for an interview with The FXBG Advance’s humorist which is unlikely to ever happen again. See if you can figure out why.)
The interview has been condensed for both clarity and comedic purposes.
Drew Gallagher: When you did your video book reviews did you have a budget?
Ron Charles: I gave myself a budget of $50.00.
DG: Did the Post reimburse you or was that your budget?
RC: The Post reimbursed me, without question, every time. My manager, this would have been someone other than my editor, had to sign off on these things and said they were the weirdest expense reports he had ever seen.
DG: What sort of props went onto the expense report?
RC: A lot of wigs, “bare chest with abs”, a lot of dead birds, giant adult diaper. Severed hand was one of them.
DG: Did your wife ever get paid for her appearances?
RD: Shockingly she did not. It was a lot of work too. We would spend 20 or 25 dollars on those things and she filmed it all and sometimes she was in them. It was a tremendous sacrifice for her. She has that studied, dead-panned, disgusted look down.
DG: That’s funny. My wife has the same look. I think I told you, and you’ve probably forgotten, that The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg wanted me to do similar ones. I had no budget, and I had my teenage daughter as producer and she refused to appear on camera.
RC: Ah.
(My interviewing skills told me that eliciting an “Ah” was time to change topics.)
DG: How many books do you read in a year?
RC: Oh, maybe 200 or 150?
DG: Do you review most of those?
RC: No, I review one a week and that is a book that I have pored over very carefully. I then read several poetry collections to pick one for my newsletter and then read a couple books a week, very, very fast, to comment on in my newsletter.
DG: When you recently reviewed Danielle Steel’s newest novel you wrote: “It’s a confirmed blind spot in our critical landscape: Unlike music, movie and TV reviewers, book reviewers pride themselves on avoiding what most people are consuming.” Why do you think that is true of book reviewers?
RC: It can be very hard to review popular fiction because there is often not a lot to say, so it is a practical consideration. You have to fill 800-1,000 words, and what do you do with this trite book that is filled with cardboard characters and once you’ve said that what do you do for the next 700 words? So part of it has to do with if your job is to be a critic and you have to say something interesting you want a subject that allows you some matter to get into. Also, most book critics are failed academics or teachers of one kind or another and so they are kind of snobby, and they want to review high class books.
DG: A friend of mine who reviews books likens book reviewing to a man standing in front of a beautiful woman and disrobing and she says: “Who do you hope to satisfy with that thing?” And he grins at her and says: “Me.” That is the essence of book reviewing.
RC: (Prolonged laughter.)
DG: For people who may not find my column amusing or are wondering why on earth Ron Charles agreed to this interview, is there a favorite book of yours that might get more people to read this column?
RC: I liked James by Percival Everett. His take on Huck Finn.
DG: Were you surprised James went to number one on the best-seller list?
RC: Yes. Percival Everett publishes a lot of books and they do not usually go to number one, but this one corresponded with the very popular movie “American Fiction”. And he’s being profiled, including by us, and everywhere else. It’s been an ocean of publicity about him finally and it’s so well-deserved and so encouraging to see.
DG: Did you enjoy American Fiction?
RC: I did. I did not find it as revelatory as other people did. Maybe because I’ve been laughing about publishers and their sensitivities for a long time. I thought it was superbly well done.
DG: Just to be clear, you thought American Fiction was superbly well done and not necessarily this interview?
RC: Ha – a trick question, eh?
(At that point, the sculptor must have been finished with that day’s sitting because our interview ended soon thereafter. I’d like to think that it was not due to tumescence. That is me showing off.)
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