Toy Monster: The big, bad world of Mattel, by Jerry Oppenheimer, is scored by reviewer Eric J. Iannelli, in the 9/4/09 Times [of London] Literary Supplement for its triteness. (On-line only for subscribers)
“As befits such a seedy, tabloid-style expose, the writing is cliched and hyperbolic,” writes Iannelli, giving some juicy particulars:
Investigators are “hard-nosed”. It is the “tired,poor, huddled masses” who immigrate through Ellis Island. Japan is “the Land of the Rising Sun,” Germany is “the Fatherland” and Hollywood is “La-La Land.”
Etc. A main character in this non-fic account “always got what she wanted” and “never took no for an answer.” Her rise is twice described as “meteoric,” she “goes ballistic.” And especially good are the verbs used instead of “say” or “said”: “Very few . . . say anything. . . they observe, maintain, intone or opine.”
Ianelli still found the book “engaging,” even if “sensationalist” and “one-sided,” because it raises “legitimate concerns” such as “lavish executive bonuses . . . in the face of scandal and falling profits.”
And nobody kept inserting “you know” in the middle of sentences or between them. If you heard them talking live, ah, that would be a different matter, I’m sure.
Blithe Spirit 