Joy English · Level C2 · Critical reviewsjoy-english.com
A critical review of a novel
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Write a critical review that evaluates with nuance: praise precisely, qualify with tact and support every judgement.
Review: The Salt Cartographer by Marit Solheim
Marit Solheim's third novel opens with a premise that sounds, on paper, faintly precious: a retired surveyor, Anselm Rook, sets out to redraw the coastline of an island that the sea is steadily reclaiming. That the book is anything but precious is the first of several pleasant surprises.
Solheim's great gift is restraint. Rook's grief for his late wife is never named; it seeps instead into his obsession with tidal tables and the shifting of sandbanks, so that every measurement becomes an act of mourning by other means. The prose, spare and exact, rarely raises its voice, and the few occasions on which it does, such as the storm that occupies the central chapters, land with considerable force.
Where the novel falters is in its secondary characters. Rook's neighbours, a ferryman and a schoolteacher who is perpetually on the point of leaving, are drawn with affection but little depth, and they too often serve merely to prompt the hero into reflection. One suspects that Solheim, so confident with landscape, is less at ease with conversation: dialogue that might have crackled instead settles into a polite murmur.
Nor is the ending wholly satisfactory. The final pages gesture towards a reconciliation between Rook and his estranged daughter that the preceding three hundred pages have done little to earn, and the metaphor of the vanishing island, hitherto handled with a light touch, is pressed rather too insistently into service. It is a pity, since the book's best moments depend precisely on what is left unsaid.
These reservations should not obscure what is accomplished here. Solheim has written a novel about loss that is neither sentimental nor cold, and about work as a form of consolation, which is a harder trick than it looks. Readers in search of plot may grow restless; those prepared to adjust to its tidal rhythms will find it quietly rewarding. It is not flawless, but it is, in the best sense, a book that stays with you after the sea has gone out.
Evaluation and tone
Choose the best option.
- Which sentence is the most balanced and supported evaluation?
- "The dialogue settles into a polite murmur." What does this imply?
- "Where the novel falters" means where the novel ___.
- Which is the closest in meaning to "Nor is the ending wholly satisfactory"?
- What is the purpose of "These reservations should not obscure what is accomplished here"?
- The final pages ___ towards a reconciliation.
- Which sentence hedges an interpretation appropriately?
Complete the review language
Type one word to complete each sentence.
- The prose rarely raises its ___.
- His grief seeps into his obsession ___ tidal tables.
- A reconciliation that the preceding pages have done little to ___.
- It is, in the ___ sense, a book that stays with you.
- Readers in search ___ plot may grow restless.
- The metaphor is pressed rather too insistently into ___.
- Dialogue that might have crackled instead settles ___ a polite murmur.
Writing task
Write a critical review of a book, film, exhibition or album that you know well (you may invent one). Give your overall judgement, praise two specific qualities, criticise at least one aspect tactfully, hedge at least one interpretation, and say what kind of audience would enjoy it.
280–340 words
Check your writing
- My opening gives a clear sense of the work and my overall attitude.
- I praised specific qualities and supported each with a detail.
- I criticised at least one aspect tactfully, using understatement rather than harsh words.
- I hedged at least one interpretation (one suspects, arguably, perhaps).
- I did not retell the whole plot or reveal a surprise ending.
- I ended with a verdict that tells different readers what to expect.
Answer key
Evaluation and tone
- c) The dialogue, so crisp in the early chapters, settles later into a polite murmur.It judges a specific feature and gives evidence. The other sentences give an unsupported verdict.
- a) It lacks the energy the reader might have hoped for.Polite murmur suggests the dialogue is pleasant but flat.
- b) loses strength or confidenceTo falter is to lose strength, confidence or momentum.
- a) The ending leaves something to be desired.Not wholly satisfactory is understatement for an ending with real shortcomings.
- b) To remind readers that the book has significant merits despite its flawsThe sentence restores proportion before the verdict.
- a) gestureGesture towards means indicate or suggest. The other verbs do not collocate with towards in this sense.
- c) One suspects that the author is less at ease with conversation.One suspects marks an informed interpretation rather than a fact.
Complete the review language
- voiceTo raise your voice is a fixed phrase; here it is applied figuratively to prose.
- withObsession with is the standard pattern.
- earn / justify / warrantTo earn (or justify) an ending means to prepare for it convincingly.
- best / truestIn the best sense is a fixed phrase meaning in a positive way.
- ofIn search of is the fixed phrase.
- servicePress something into service means to use it, often when it is not ideal.
- intoSettle into means gradually become.
Model answer
Threads of Weather, now showing at the Lantern Gallery, is an exhibition that asks a modest question and answers it with unusual grace: what would a year of weather look like if it were woven?
The textile artist Ilse Brandvold has spent three years collecting daily records of temperature, rainfall and wind speed from a single valley, and translating each into a band of coloured thread. The result is a cloth eleven metres long that hangs in a spiral through the main hall. From a distance it is merely handsome; close up, one notices that a particularly dry March has been rendered in a tight, pale ochre that seems to hold its breath.
Brandvold's finest decision is to let the data do the work. There is no wall text telling visitors what to feel about the weather, only the cloth and a small notebook of figures. This restraint gives the piece a dignity that more insistent works rarely achieve, and it leaves visitors free to find their own meaning in the threads.
The smaller side rooms are less assured. A series of embroidered cloud studies, though technically accomplished, feels like a rehearsal for the main work rather than a companion to it, and a video installation of the artist at her loom adds little that the cloth does not already say. One suspects that the gallery, anxious to fill the space, has been more generous than the artist would have wished.
Nor is the lighting entirely satisfactory. Spotlights set too high cast the spiral's inner curves into shadow, so that the very winter weeks that Brandvold has taken most care over are the hardest to see.
These quibbles aside, this is a thoughtful and quietly moving show. Visitors who expect spectacle will be disappointed; those willing to stand still for ten minutes in front of a single month of rain will leave seeing the sky differently.