Critiquing critics: The Bondmaid by Nette

It was a bad review of Catherine Lim's novel The Bondmaid that made me sure I would like it. The review comes from Kirkus Reviews, August 1997. Our unnamed reviewer describes the work as maudlin, suffering from a lack of concrete detail, the sort of complaint that exposes an inability to grasp nuance. Maudlin in this dismissive context suggested to me romantic, and in fact I found the book to be a very intense tale of powerful love.

He continues on, stating that "the character's cozy chats with gods, and the prophetic dreams punctuating the narrative also make it seem more like sentimental melodrama". Clearly the reviewer has no clue what conversing with gods might be like, and for some reason he equates prophetic dreams with sentimentality. Hmmm - could this be someone who is offended by shades of the paranormal, someone with a culturally narrow perspective? Cosy chatting to me implies that Lim describes a spiritual life in a pragmatic fashion, without a lot of flowery new age rhetoric. In some cultures speaking to gods and goddesses is part of daily life after all - nothing to freak out about screaming "ack! superstition!".

The reviewer goes on to describe the suspenseful plot in full detail, giving away all the delicate final moments and essentially ruining the book for anyone who reads the review. But I was so impressed by the idea of prophetic dreams implying melodrama to someone that I rushed out and got the book before finishing the review. And a good thing too, because I was not disappointed. I'm not too hip for good love stories, fiddle dee dee.

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