popplers

At cross purposes

In preparation for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, I started reading Marc Romano's Crossworld. (I finished Kitchen Confidential last week (recommended) and haven't yet returned to Tender at the Bone.)

So far, I like it because I'm interested in the subject matter. (You can read the first chapter over at Powells.com.) But I think that Amazon.com reviewer Steve Koss pretty much nails it:

As for the 500-odd participants in the contest, the author blithely assures us that they are mostly introverts, mostly white, scrupulously honest, unhealthily consumed by puzzling, and just all-around nice people. As human insights go, these are remarkably trite. Romano apparently decided he was far more interesting than anyone else at the contest. We learn about his dating habits, his drinking habits, his use of Ativan to calm himself into a semi-hallucinatory state, and an off-base story about how his puzzling skills helped him acquire "a new bedmate." What should have been a fascinating account of crosswording aficionados ends up being mostly the author's stargazing at New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz and navel-gazing over his own skills.

Posted by rv at March 13, 2006 04:32 PM to book