Why Won't the Times Review Warren St. John's Book?
Warren St. John, the dreamy NYT reporter and author of incongruous 'Bama football book Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, has a heartwarming new book about refugee soccer players that is a smash hit. Why won't his own paper review it?
Somebody went and blabbed to Page Six that the paper is stiffing St. John on a review out of jealousy:
"The official line to St. John is that they weren't reviewing because it would seem like too much of a self-promotion of the Times, but that's ridiculous. They review all books by their reporters," our insider said.
"The real reason is they are totally jealous he scored the book and the movie rights. It's typical passive-aggressive behavior of the Times suits towards their staff, like, 'He hit the jackpot, he got mentioned on Oprah. Why should we help him?'
It's a fair point: The NYT did review St. John's first book, and it does review most of the books by its high profile staffers—Jennifer 8 Lee, David Carr, etc. And it's hard to argue St. John's book isn't worthy of the same attention.
Then again, would the paper really be jealous of St. John's success? It helps their image, too. Not to mention the fact that the paper got a significant chunk of the $2 million deal for the movie rights. The NYT actually has every incentive to make the book as visible as any other staffer's book.
Very mysterious. If you're a NYT staffer with some insight into this issue and would like to weigh in, feel free to email us (we'll keep you anonymous). Could this photo of St. John being accosted by Nick Denton at a media party have something to do with it? Probably not.
