The American novelist Johh Updike who rather looks down on criticism  hugging the shore he calls it  nevertheless enjoys some coastal reviewing in the intervals between his transoceanic novelwriting Understandably reluctant to allow even his less ambitious voyages to go without any permanent record he gathers together his every review however short into volumes with mildly selfdeprecating titles It might be thought that lesser persons should accept ephemerality as the penalty appropriate to their coastal caution but it is hand to see why if they can get away with it they shouldnt be allowed to enjoy the measure of permanence and the measure of vanity proper to their station especially if they believe that some of their best writing has been buried in reviews I admit to feeling this about my own work