LITERARY HIT MEN

Re book critics almost as reliable as the people who write the blurbs for film ads:

Larry Ceplair’s comments about Michael Herr’s “Walter Winchell: A Novel� (May 27) are a model of the nit-picking critique which makes so many of us (unfairly, perhaps) classify critics as literary “hit men� who dote on cutesy negativism. They too often get caught up in the cleverness of their put-downs and lose any sense of objectivity.

I was asked by a local bookseller to read a pre-publication copy of “Walter Winchell� and advise her as to its worth. I read it . . . and found it interesting and great fun: not “great literature� but certainly entertaining reading. The unique format added to the enjoyment.

WALT HOPMANS

Director, Santa Barbara Writers’ Consortium

SANTA BARBARA