CRITICAL MASS: The Critical I: Six Questions for M.A. Orthofer Aug 21, 2006 I recently located M.A. Orthofer, founder of the incredibly encyclopedic and useful website, The Complete Review, at his undisclosed location...
Q: The complete review seemed to appear out of nowhere, but suddenly it became one of the most useful aggregating sites on the web for book information and news, especially from abroad. Obviously this didn't happen overnight. Tell us how it happened and what your role has been?
A: When I first started using the Internet I noticed a lot of people were posting book reviews, but that practically nobody was doing the obvious -- linking to all other accessible reviews of the same book, as well as any other relevant information. So I figured I would try doing that (along with providing representative quotes from some of the newspaper and magazine reviews that aren't accessible on the Internet), which is how the Complete Review got started (in 1999). My role has been the dominant one -- currently way too dominant again -- in shaping the site (and providing content), especially in keeping the focus international.
Q: So who are the other shadowy figures of the editorial board of the Complete Review, and what are their relative areas of passion/expertise? Do you ever plan to put together a Complete Review atlas to the literary world?
A: Shadowy is right, especially right now (summer months don't help) -- as I mentioned, my role is again way too dominant, but others who have been actively involved almost all have a literary background, generally academic (grad student being the norm). A CR atlas sounds like a fun idea (but isn't Salon doing something like that?). But first up would probably be a reference work of great authors and their books that have not been translated into English yet!

Comment
-I am Swedish, and CR, along with Slate and Salon, have been the best guides I could ever get into the great world of English language literature. But I've also been puzzled by the strange lack of information on the guys behind the site. Someone oughta put together a Wikipedia entry for CR. still none that I find for either "compete review" or Orthofer. Thanks for this post, though!
-Rebecca Skloot said...Glad you find CM to be a useful resource. And actually, there's no lack of info about the people behind it (who are actually more gals than guys): The names of the folks on the "blogging committee" are listed on the front page of the blog, with links to their personal websites. You can also find bios for everyone on the blogging committee by visiting the NBCC website. Just scroll through to find each name.
huh. Skloot misunderstood his comment on "the strange lack of information on the guys behind the site" as referring to CM = Critical Mass, the litblog of the National Book Critic Circle Board of Directors of which she is a representative here and which hosted this interview. when in fact (as is pretty clear - seems remarkable this was not at any point noticed & changed later?) he is commenting on the lack of information on the guys behind the CR = Complete Review site, main 'guy' of which being interviewed here. other participants are shadowy (names not seem appear anywhere on site) and Orthofer's name is not at all prominent itself; you can find it but no background information. which is okay, I kind of like that what you get is the reviews, you get just the voice.
from main page if click on About the Site:
The complete review was founded and continues to be run by M.A.Orthofer, and he is currently responsible for most of the material that appears on the site.
Though based in New York, the complete review tries and hopes to be global in reach, both regarding the books that are covered on the site and its audience.


haven't I noted all this before? yes:
above intrvw pgmrkd dlcs z0708 and yes same time on dlww Posted by m at 8/14/2007 11:29:00 AM
This review [re Mister Pip wh I just looked at a bit] here is notably good. I've seen this site before. today it strikes me as a very good site.
Complete Review - Welcome Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs.
I like this: Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

but that's it? I didn't mark the "scratch deeper" bit? ah, on dlcs yes 14Aug08:
Complete Review - Editorial Policy of the Complete Review So: approach evth you see on the internet, including this site, with great care. Be careful what you believe: ask yourself why you believe it. .. These things we try to do here at the complete review, but we only scratch the surface. Scratch deeper.

also that month (though two weeks later on 1Sep not on same day) marked dalkey archive ~ chad post ~ three percent ~ reading the world sites . see z0708 + books and huh also Pretty Little Liars read that month. well. not so long ago. just last summer.