P. L. Gaus’s Ohio Amish Journal

 Literary critics?  They can be a bane or a boon to an author.  And even a single critic can simultaneously be both.  The experience of reading the critics’ reviews can be traumatic for new authors, and even for authors who have been around awhile, the sting of a bad review can be a trial.  The trick is, to let the sting serve as something useful, like the sting of a flu shot.  It hurts, but you just keep telling yourself that it’s good for you.  Even for authors who have made it to the top, although they may profess a disdainful disinterest, I suspect it still matters to them what the literary critics say.

The barb of an unkind critic sinks deep into an author’s skin, especially when there is evidence that the critic really hasn’t given your work a fair and honest reading.  New writers, get ready, because this sort of thing does happen.  Less traumatic are the critics who clearly have read your work carefully.  Often comments from such reviews serve useful purposes.  Ouch, you say, “I’ll never do that again.”  Or you might say, “OK, that’s fair criticism, so I’ll work to improve that the next time.”

With good luck, as a writer, you keep at it, and you begin to read comments that make your whole day.  It’s one of the most gratifying things in a writer’s life.  But, you soon realize that praise for your work is not as useful as criticism.  It’s fun to get a good review, but really, you tell yourself, you knew that already.  You suspect your editors knew it too.  Praise is wonderful, but it gives you no new levers to push against or insights to guide improvement while you write your next book.

But once in awhile, even if there is some criticism involved, a literary critic will pay you the high compliment of taking your body of work seriously, treating it as literature, and demonstrating that he or she does “get it.”  They have really understood what you were trying to do.  They find and give respect to the deeper things you have written.  They provide a detailed and knowledgeable assessment of what your novels have accomplished.  They get inside the writer’s work and search out the hidden insights. 

Such a review of my novels was written recently by Professor Kyle Schlabach (Goshen College) in the online journal of the Center for Mennonite Writing.  I have linked to this critical review under News and Articles on my website (www.plgaus.com).  Schlabach’s is the type of review and literary critique that writers want to see.  I think it is much better than standard literary criticism, because it aspires to the higher goals of that craft.  Critical or complimentary, such literary critics give high respect to authors.

The civil war monument on courthouse square in Millersburg, Ohio, is mentioned often in my Amish-Country Mysteries, not because it has ever played an important role in one of the stories, but because it stands outside the north office window of Sheriff Bruce Robertson.  Many times, my characters have gazed upon it while contemplating one case or another.  As you can see, it is very much like other such monuments sprinkled in small towns throughout the country, and if you’ve driven much over the so-called blue highways of America, passing through small, rural towns, you know you’ve reached the center of town because one of these monuments is often there, especially in county seats, marking a place of memory and honor, of valor, sacrifice, and devotion to duty.  This one in Millersburg anchors the northwest corner of courthouse square, in front of the courthouse itself, and Robertson’s red brick jail is out of the picture, off to the right.  So, I thought you’d like to see it.  I’ll probably mention it again, when Professor Branden or Pastor Troyer stand looking out of Robertson’s north window, arguing as friends will, about their next case.