Michiko Kakutani

is an American writer and retired literary critic, best known for reviewing books for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 to 2017. In that role, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998.

Early life and family

Kakutani, a Japanese American, was born on January 9, 1955, in New Haven, Connecticut. She is the only child of Yale mathematician Shizuo Kakutani and Keiko "Kay" Uchida. Her father was born in Japan, and her mother was a second-generation Japanese-American who was raised in Berkeley, California. Kakutani's aunt, Yoshiko Uchida, was an author of children's books. Kakutani received her bachelor's degree in English literature from Yale University in 1976..

Career

Kakutani initially worked as a reporter for ''The Washington Post'', and then from 1977 to 1979 for ''Time'' magazine. In 1979, she joined ''The New York Times'' as a reporter.

Literary critic

Kakutani was a literary critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 until her retirement in 2017. She gained particular notoriety for her sometimes-biting reviews of books from famous authors, with '' Slate'' remarking that "her name became a verb, and publishers have referred to her negative reviews as 'getting Kakutani'ed'".

More than one of the authors who had received such reviews gave harsh public responses. In 2006, Kakutani called Jonathan Franzen's '' The Discomfort Zone'' "an odious self-portrait of the artist as a young jackass"; Franzen subsequently called Kakutani "the stupidest person in New York City". In 2012, Kakutani wrote a negative review of Nassim Nicholas Taleb's '' Antifragile''. In 2018, writing about reviewers that include Kakutani—whether about the ''Antifragile'' review, or otherwise—six years after ''Antifragile'', Taleb stated that

someone has to have read the book to notice that a reviewer is full of baloney, so in the absence of skin in the game, reviewers such as Michiko Kakutani can go on forever without anyone knowing they are either fabricating or drunk (or, as I am certain, in the case of Kakutani, both)".

(Daniel Takeshi, an academic computer scientist, responded to Taleb, stating, "If you can get used to Taleb’s idiosyncratic and pompous writing style, such as mocking... Thomas L. Friedman... and insulting Michiko Kakutani... there’s actually some nice insights".) According to Kira Cochrane in ''The Guardian'', such counterattacks may have bolstered Kakutani's reputation as commendably "fearless."

She has been known to write reviews in the voice of movie or book characters, including Brian Griffin, Austin Powers, Holden Caulfield, Elle Woods of '' Legally Blonde'', and Truman Capote's character Holly Golightly in '' Breakfast at Tiffany's''.

Kakutani announced that she was stepping down as chief book critic of the ''Times'' on July 27, 2017. In an article summarizing her book reviewing career, a writer in '' Vanity Fair'' called her "the most powerful book critic in the English-speaking world" and credited her with boosting the careers of George Saunders, Mary Karr, David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, and Zadie Smith.

Later work

In 2018, Kakutani published a book criticizing the Trump administration titled ''The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump''. In it, Kakutani draws parallels between postmodern philosophy and the number of false or misleading statements made by Trump. In an interview for the book, she argued:

Kakutani's second book, ''Ex-Libris: 100+ Books to Read and Re-Read'', an essay collection about books that she considers personally and culturally influential, was published in 2020.

In 2024, Kakutani published her third book, ''The Great Wave: The Era of Radical Disruption and the Rise of the Outsider''.

Personal life

Kakutani is a fan of the New York Yankees. , she lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

During her career at ''The New York Times'', Kakutani developed a reputation as an extremely private person who was seldom seen in public, with articles describing her as "mysterious" and "reclusive". Shawn McCreesh, writing in ''New York'' magazine, said that "you were likelier to have seen a snow leopard in Manhattan than to meet Kakutani in the wild". However, upon the publication of ''The Death of Truth'', Kakutani began giving interviews to print outlets, though she declined to appear on television.

Media references

* She is referenced in an episode of the HBO series '' Sex and the City''. In "Critical Condition" (season 5, episode 6), Carrie Bradshaw releases a book that Kakutani reviews. As Carrie obsesses over the review, Miranda Hobbes memorably states, "Just don't say her name again — it'll push me over the edge."
* Comedian and ''Saturday Night Live'' cast member Bowen Yang performed an impression of Kakutani during his audition for the show, later joking that she was perfect for an impression since many are unaware of what she looks or sounds like.

Publications

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Awards

*1998: Pulitzer Prize for Criticism

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kakutani, Michiko
1955 births
20th-century American journalists
20th-century American women journalists
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American journalists
21st-century American women journalists
21st-century American women writers
American literary critics
American women journalists of Asian descent
American women non-fiction writers
American writers of Japanese descent
American women writers of Asian descent
The New York Times journalists
American critics of postmodernism
Living people
People from the Upper West Side
Pulitzer Prize for Criticism winners
The New York Times Pulitzer Prize winners
The Washington Post journalists
Time (magazine) people
American women literary critics
Writers from Manhattan
Writers from New Haven, Connecticut
Yale College alumni