Heat
by Bill Buford
reviewed by Ben Oswest
This review appeared in edited form in the 8 Oct 06 Sunday Independent. Here’s the link (subscribers only):
And here’s the full review:
Of the many accusations that it’s possible to level against The New Yorker magazine, where Bill Buford was the fiction editor until quite recently – that it is nakedly snobbish; that it keeps a bloodshot, rather cynical weather eye on the Arab world in its Middle East reporting; or that it smugly publishes, with maddening regularity, some of the best English writing on the planet – a denunciation that it’s “machoâ€? isn’t one of them. The New Yorker is for nakedly snobbish cynics who enjoy the best English writing on the planet. Macho it’s not. And that, it seems, turned out to be a problem for Bill Buford.
