Jennifer Weiner “has stoked a lively public discussion about the reception and consumption of fiction written by women,” Rebecca Mead writes in The New Yorker:
Last spring, the Times appointed Pamela Paul, an editor and writer known for her attention to gender issues, to run the Times Book Review. … Weiner does not take credit for changes at the Book Review, but she does take satisfaction in them. “Maybe they are doing focus groups, and lots of people are, like, ‘Could you please not write all the time about whatever Presidential biography you are reviewing for the second time?’ ” she says. “I would love to believe that I had something to do with it, but I have no idea. They are certainly not writing me thank-you notes.” (In an e-mail, Paul wrote, “As the last free-standing newspaper book review in the country, we feel all the more responsible about covering the territory, and meeting our readers where they are, which means not only the high and the low, but also the vast middle.”)
