The very slow motion flamewar continues!

[rachelmanija]

So, someone popped up to write a review of All the Fishes Come Home to Roost on Amazon which said, at rather great length, that I was a bad human being. One RL friend (whom I swear I did not tip off) and, I believe, one LJ friend commented to say, "Uh, what? Then either a third party or a sock puppet appeared and has apparently tried to get Amazon to delete the comments because they're personal (like the first review wasn't.)

And also to hit me where it hurts. Clever of the person to know that writers would far rather be vilified than 'obscure' Normally I don't attribute all negative reviews to personal malice, but in this case I suspect that someone has a vendetta, and my spider-sense tells me that it's a disgruntled Baba-lover.

For the record, I believe that most Borders do carry my book, and it can't be that obscure if it was reviewed in Entertainment Weekly and USA Today. So there!

Comments

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

The review and the the response to the comments make me wonder if someone's truth came out in the book, and now they're trying to discredit it.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I thought that too, but it's been out for so long now that I would have thought everyone who actually appears in it already knew ages ago. Unless they either make a tiny cameo appearance, or aren't really in it but think they are.

One might think from the original review that they think I accused them of molesting me, but that's impossible: one of those people is now dead and the other apologized, and the incident was such that no one could possibly think I was accusing them unless they actually were there.

I don't know what's up with calling me coy on that account. I thought I was perfectly clear that I can't say for sure what happened because I blacked out at a crucial point and so don't remember. Maybe they read that as being metaphorical rather than literal.

[goldenflames.livejournal.com]

I think religion generally tends to bring out either the best or the worst in people, if it's something that they feel very strongly about.

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

Baba? Don't you mean that "obscure Indian guru"? :P

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

I couldn't help but dip my oar in again, for better or worse -- or most likely, useless because that person (or persons) just strikes me as so tone-deaf they wouldn't know humorous if it put on a funny wig and a clown nose, and kicked them in the ass.

[justinelavaworm.livejournal.com]

I went and clickety clicked the was this useful button. Stupid troll.

And, yes, the obscurity claim sends cold shivers done the spine. Especially as Borders really doesn't stock my books. Barnes & Noble yes, but Borders hates me. Stupid Borders!

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

You can't be obscure! My podunk Kansas library carries your book. They carry nothing obscure, ever.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

OK, I feel better now.

[khaybee.livejournal.com]

You don't know me, but I read your book and it was important to me.

I also had an unusual childhood with seeking parents, but other than that there are no similarities. The things in your book that touched me were more to do with the feeling of being a child in a situation you don't really understand watching the adults in your life move around you like a whirlwind. They do so many things you don't understand, and you know that they truly care about you, but you have nearly no common vocabulary.

Reading about someone else completely different experience helped me see things about my own experience and helped me to look at my childhood in more detail, in an unblinking fashion that had been too scary before.

I liked your book very much, both for what it told me about you and for what it told me about me.

[sarge-5150.livejournal.com]

Alas and alack, I have seen your book in a local Borders or Barnes & Noble. (Memory fails.)

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Here. have some bunnies. (http://community.livejournal.com/splodefromcute/476049.html)

::contemplates hitting this 'this was not helpful' button herself::

[gweniveeve.livejournal.com]

Your book is carried at four branches (https://twain.gwinnettpl.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=11B60901Q17M4.60677&menu=search&aspect=subtab34&npp=25&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=hq&ri=&term=All+the+Fishes+Come+Home+to+Roost&index=.TW&x=0&y=0&aspect=subtab34&term=&index=.AW&term=&index=.GW&sort=) of the Gwinnett County Georgia Public Library. Not obscure!

[actoplasm.livejournal.com]

Yes, Borders does carry your book. I check to make sure regularly and we keep it in our Indian History section.

[mcdolemite.livejournal.com]

I bought your book at Borders. So did Sunshine.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I friended you a while back because I had often come across your name in LJ, in assorted places. On the other hand I'd never heard of the Baba until I went and read th ereviews of your book on Amazon. "Obscure" is a subjective sort of thing.