Eileen Battersby
Posted on April 22, 2007 - Filed Under Media | 9 Comments
Eileen Battersby is the Literary Correspondent of The Irish Times and the worst thing in the otherwise generally excellent Weekend Review supplement (except on those rare occasions when that wretch Róisín Ingle slithers a disgracefully inept piece into it, and also, of course, the entire last page). As a literary correspondent, it is Battersby’s job to write book reviews. Unfortunately, Battersby is far more interested in showing off what a good writer she thinks she is than in dealing adequately with whatever book she’s meant to be reviewing.
For example, take this first sentence from the review of Don DeLillo’s Falling Man that appeared in yesterday’s IT:
They came on a clear, bright morning, the aeroplanes – the aircraft that crashed into the towers, changing America, changing everything, forever.
She goes on in this bombastic manner for two paragraphs. To read it, you would think that she is penning the beginning of her own book, not a review of someone else’s.
And that seems to me to be the main problem with Battersby. I don’t know anything about her, but I’d wager that she’s a failed, or at least unsuccessful, novelist. She’s like the Bill O’Reilly of book reviews, believing that the books she’s reviewing are merely sideshows to her own staggering literary prowess, just as O’Reilly spends more time talking than listening to his guests in order to demonstrate his own profound wisdom.
Such self-indulgence belongs strictly in the blogosphere.
Comments
9 Responses to “Eileen Battersby”
Leave a Reply
Ironically, I thought this blog was well-written, heh.
Kudos on the description of Mr. O’Reilly, most accurate.
If you think she is bad, read Poly Devlin’s “”review” in the “Irish Times” of 21 October.
By the end of the article I knew as much about the book being reviewed as I did at the beginning: bring on Anne Enright!
(Presumably Eileen B chose this awful Devlin woman)
Mrs Battersby, in my view is possibly one the best journalists in Ireland today, perhaps its the simple fact that she speaks her mind and dosn’t try to run down any fowl mouthed youths that make so terribly difficult to understand. But being a mother, and avid admirer of Mrs Battersby’s work, I think her reaction to Anne Enight’s truly dreadful novel,and also her reaction to vulgar jestures towards herself and her daughter were only human.
Anyone with any other view obviously has no idea about literature , and at this stage we probley agree on the fact that the irish times is really already going down the drain and that Mrs B is one of the few remaining stronge liknks to the good old irish times day. Or maybe thier taste is lmited to that of…lets say, a real feminist like Rosin Ingle, well boys weall have our femine side.
I don’t even know where to begin; I genuinely can’t understand this comment at all.
As regards to the “fowl mouthed youths that make so terribly difficult to understand (sic [& lol])”, if that’s directed towards me all I can say is that I take offence – I’m a vegan so I don’t eat fowl of any kind!
I landed at your blog by chance looking for Eileen’s email id. I had come across her article on Irish Times. I am constantly on the look-out for new authors and wanted to write her a appreciative note thanking her for mentioning so many potentially good ones in a single article (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1115/1224283324648.html). Btw, I liked your post…haha
A totally accurate and finely penned summary of the pompous and conceited style of Ms. Battersby. What a sharp, witty piece of writing!
Yes… and by the way, who the feck is she? She has no entry in Wikipedia, which is revealing… of something. Googling for her biography I got… er, nothing. I get the Irish Times in London, on a Saturday (for the review); along with Private Eye it’s the only rag worth reading, and I want to know why the permanent fixtures in the Irish Times landscape, who survive from year to year to decade to century, with their well-fed arses buffing up their leather chairs, are so immutable. And where they come from. And who put em where they are.
I just think she’s kinda nice looking and I wonder why Cian’s so bitter.
Cian, the problem is clear: Eileen Battersby can write (I just finished her wonderful book Ordinary Dogs) and is successful; you can’t and are not. Maybe if you could stop being so bitter about others, you might have a chance at a real life.