Michiko Kakutani

Michiko Kakutani (角谷 美智子, Kakutani Michiko^?, born January 9, 1955) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for The New York Times and is considered by many to be a leading literary critic in the United States.^[1][2]

Life and career

Kakutani, a Japanese American, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the only child of noted Yale mathematician Shizuo Kakutani. She received her B.A. in English literature from Yale University in 1976, where she studied under noted author and Yale writing professor John Hersey, among others.^[3] After graduation she initially worked as a reporter for The Washington Post, and then from 1977 to 1979 for Time magazine, where Hersey himself had worked. In 1979, she joined The New York Times as a reporter.^[3]

Kakutani has been a highly influential literary critic for The New York Times since 1983.^[3] She is best known for her book reviews. Her harsh critiques 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 Brian Griffin,^[4] Austin Powers,^[5] Holden Caulfield,^[6] Elle Woods of Legally Blonde,^[7] and Truman Capote's character Holly Golightly.^[8]

Criticism

Salman Rushdie has called her "a weird woman who seems to feel the need to alternately praise and spank."^[9] In a June 2005 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, author Norman Mailer criticized Kakutani as a "one-woman kamikaze" 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."^[10] Jonathan Franzen called her “the stupidest person in New York.” ^[11] Franzen has also called her an "international embarrassment." ^[12] Moreover, in recent years, Kakutani's particularly harsh reviews of books by famous authors (for example, John Updike's The Widows of Eastwick^[13]) are followed by usually milder or openly positive reviews of the same titles by other Times reviewers.^[14]

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.^[15]

Kakutani was criticized for her alleged overuse of the word limn in her reviews.^[16] She was also parodied in the essay "I Am Michiko Kakutani"^[17] by one of her former classmates, Colin McEnroe.

Media references

• She was referred to in an episode of the show Sex and the City titled Critical Condition, in which Carrie Bradshaw releases a book that 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, stating, 'just don't say her name again; it will drive me over the edge.'^[18]
• 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.
• In the Saturday Night Live skit "The Dakota Fanning Show," a Kakutani review of a Thomas Pynchon novel is referenced by Fanning as a part on an ongoing joke that Fanning behaves beyond her years.
• Recently, a fictionalized account of her life, entitled, "Michiko Kakutani and the Sadness of the World!" was published in the online and print magazine Essays & Fictions.

Awards

• 1998: Pulitzer Prize for Criticism^[3]

References

1. ^ Paulson, Steve (2005-07-03). She has also been nicknamed Pearl Harbor II."Michiko Kakutani: You know when you've been Kakutanied".The Independent. Retrieved on 2009-04-22.
2. ^ Cochrane, Kira (2008-05-01). "Don't mess with Michiko Kakutani".guardian.co.uk. Retrieved on 2009-04-22
3. ^ ^{a b c d} "1998 Pulitzer Prizes - CRITICISM - Biography". Archived from the original on 2007-07-04. http://web.archive.org/web/20070704095158/http://www.pulitzer.org/year/1998/criticism/bio/. Retrieved 2007-07-09. .
4. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (2010-12-06). "Marilyn, Dostoyevsky and Me, Her Pup". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/books/review/07book.html?ref=books. Retrieved 2010-12-06. 
5. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (2002-07-23). "Hipoisie and Chic-oisie And London Had the Mojo". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9400EED71738F930A15754C0A9649C8B63. Retrieved 2007-07-09. 
6. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (2005-08-23). "Who's Afraid of Holden Caulfield?". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/books/23kaku.html. Retrieved 2007-07-09. 
7. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (2005-06-19). "Digging For Gold In Stilettos And Silk". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/search/article-printpage.html?res=9B03EED81038F93AA25755C0A9659C8B63. Retrieved 2007-07-09. 
8. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (2005-10-24). "Tru, Dear, There's Only One Holly. Moi.". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/24/books/24kaku.html?ex=1137560400&en=ee6c75c24446abc9&ei=5070. Retrieved 2007-07-09. 
9. ^ Marcus, James. "Rock of Ages". http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/7765/. Retrieved 2007-07-08. 
10. ^ 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. 
11. ^ The Man We Knew Too Much, Jennie Yabroff, Newsweek, accessed August 26, 2010
12. ^ [1], Interview with Michael Krasney on KQED Radio
13. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (2008-10-20). "Old Black Magic Is Old, and So Are These Witches". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/books/20kaku.html. Retrieved 2010-05-12. 
14. ^ Tanenhaus, Sam (2008-10-26). "Mr. Wizard". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/books/review/Tanenhaus-t.html. Retrieved 2010-05-12. 
15. ^ Hoyt, Clark (2007-07-19). "Did The Times Betray Harry Potter Fans?". The New York Times. http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/did-the-times-betray-harry-potter-fans/. Retrieved 2010-05-12. 
16. ^ Gross, Matt. "One Life to Limn by Michiko Kakutani". New York Magazine. http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/books/n_7968/. Retrieved 2007-07-09. 
17. ^ McEnroe, Colin (1999-01). "I Am Michiko Kakutani". McSweeney's. http://www.mcsweeneys.net/1999/01/23michiko.html. Retrieved 2007-07-09. 
18. ^ Waters, Juliet (2005-10-13). "Candace Bushnell moves from chick lit to fem lit with Lipstick Jungle". Montreal Mirror. http://www.montrealmirror.com/2005/101305/books.html. Retrieved 2007-07-09. 

External links

• Recent and archival news by Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times.
• Michiko Kakutani Jets In From The Late 1800s To Smack Around Thomas Frank, Jonathan Schwarz
• Pulitzer Prize biography
• "Assessing Michiko Kakutani," Ben Yagoda, Slate, April 10, 2006
• "The Redhead and the Gray Lady," Ariel Levy, New York Magazine, November 7, 2005
• From Books, President-elect Barack Obama Found His Voice, Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times, January 18, 2009
• Mitchiko Kakutani and the Sadness of the World!, Joseph Michaels, Essays & Fictions, August 2011

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Name	Kakutani, Michiko
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Date of birth	1955
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