When you're glancing at paperbacks, do you care that Alice Munro thinks Elizabeth Strout "shines with integrity and humor"? Who, exactly, at the New York Times claimed that "Robopocalypse" is "ingenious"?
A new documentary on YouTube (below) explores the blurb culture by focusing on its most manic practitioner, the comic novelist Gary Shteyngart. Among the literary community, he's known as one of the most encouraging writers or, alternately, as a "blurb whore." You can find his witty compliments on the backs of all kinds of books by experienced and debut authors.
On Twitter, he's even blurbed his own blurbs: "Gary Shteyngart's blurbs are touching, funny and true. This is a blurber to watch." — Gary Shteyngart.
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