I reviewed Mark Helprin’s Freddy and Frederica here … sort of. (The opening parenthesis tells the sad tale.)

One thing I hadn’t noticed–aspiring book reviewers, listen and learn!–was that the periodical I was reviewing for had Mark on its editorial board. Whoops.

That was by no means the first time I’d smacked myself in the face with a large book-review-shaped custard pie. I used to have an occasional, but pretty regular, fiction-reviewing gig at the Washington Post Sunday “Book World.” Then they sent me a novel by Carolyn See. I thought it was a turkey, so I phoned the literary editor and said so. Did he still want the review? No, he said, he’d pass, thanks for reading it anyway. That was the last book they sent me.

Carolyn See is (or anyway was) the regular Friday reviewer for the Post. Not being a Post reader, I did not know that.