Literary Smackdown: Mailer vs. Kakutani

Dreaded New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani—for whom “the death of the author” is less a new-critical trope than a career goal—is said to be livid over Norman Mailer’s quasi-racist remarks about her in the new Rolling Stone. Buried in Douglas Brinkley’s epic profile of the ailing literary lion in the mag’s summer double issue is a scathing, if somewhat incoherent attack on Kakutani, wherein Mailer suggests she would have been given the axe long ago were it not for the Gray Lady’s affirmative action policies.

“Kakutani is a one-woman kamikaze,” Mailer gripes. “She disdains white male authors, and I’m her number-one favorite target. One of her cheap tricks is to bring out your review two weeks in advance of publication. She trashes it just to hurt sales and embarrass the author. But the Times editors can’t fire her. They’re terrified of her. With discrimination rules and such, well, she’s a threefer.... Asiatic, feminist, and, ah, what’s the third? Well... let’s just call her a twofer. They get two for one. She is a token. And deep down, she probably knows it.”

We’re told Kakutani, once dubbed “Bitchiko” by Bret Easton Ellis, is so furious about the slurs she’s thinking about filing complaints with the Academy of Arts and Letters and other stuffy literary groups to which Mailer belongs. We would have suggested challenging the 82-year-old to a boxing match, but Kakutani did not return calls seeking comment.

Photo: NYDN