Critical Mass: Four Decades of Essays, Reviews, Hand Grenades, and Hurrahs

James Wolcott’s career as a critic has been unmatched, from his early Seventies dispatches for The Village Voice to the literary coverage made him equally feared and famous to his must-read reports on the cultural weather for Vanity Fair. Bringing together his best work from across the decades, this collection shows Wolcott as connoisseur, intrepid reporter, memoirist, and necessary naysayer.
        We begin with “O.K. Corral Revisited,” Wolcott’s career-launching account o…