During the early 2000s, Jeanette Hardage was a prolific book and film reviewer. She was not equally enamored of everything that she read or viewed, of course, and when completing a review she was honest about her disappointment with blurry photos, unnecessary exaggeration, or pointless digressions. However, she often acknowledged the challenges faced by authors and her tone never wavered from one of professional respect.
One thing that Jeanette wrote on the topic of critical reviews suggests that perhaps she was tempted once or twice to be, shall we say, less gentle with an author. The poem below, penned in 2008, has a bite that rarely comes out in her work. Perhaps this was a sign that she was tired of reviewing the work of others; in fact, she did very few book reviews after that point. The reference to a sonnet in the last line seems a little out of place until you realize that this poem is itself in the form of a sonnet.
Obscurity
Dear Professor Dingbat,
It was with great joy that
I read your most recent boring tome,
The Whizbang Effect of a Shared Comb.While I might take exception with a point or two,
(“Nitpicking” was even worse than “Lousy”),
I must confess it put me to sleep early
every night this week before “Larry King Live.”I will highly recommend your worthless book
to anyone who suffers from insomnia
or overdoses of CNN
or college classes in required subjects.Please, Professor, write more.
But next time make it a sonnet.