The Digested Read

In this funny, vicious lit-crit roundup, columnist and reporter Crace collects more than 100 weekly pieces from The Guardian, in which he cleverly ""digests"" modern books, turning in funny, highly opinionated synopses that never top 500 words. He leaves no genre unturned, cutting short everything from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to Shopaholic & Sister to The Universe in a Nutshell to What Not to Wear. Along with satirical tidbits, ultra-compressed dialogue and razor-sharp critique, Crace includes all the important details, though often buried under brutal sarcasm. Crace further digests each work with ""the digested read...digested,"" summarizing his own summary into one often caustic sentence: thus, Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons is ultimately reduced to ""I'm not as good as I used to be""; for The Da Vinci Code, Crace concludes blithely, ""Several million readers can all be wrong."" Crace also includes ""bonus features,"" where he digests iconic authors such as Truman Capote and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Though Crace admits that ""occasionally I can do nice,"" this is a wicked cultural survey perfect for the bitter and well-read.