SALON

Tuesday, Nov 16, 1999 5:00 PM UTC

Author gets too personal with Michiko Kakutani

New York Times book critic puts the kibosh on flirty classifieds.

By

Topics: The New York Times, Books,

When novelist Leslie Epstein sent mash notes to New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani through the small classifieds at the bottom of the Gray Lady’s front page, he intended them, he says, in a playful spirit. The critic, however, didn’t want to play.

Epstein’s first feeler, which ran Oct. 29 on the front page of the Times, pleaded: “DEAR SWEET MISS MICHIKO K. — Call your Leib Goldkorn.” On Thursday, the Times’ advertising acceptability department received a call from Kakutani. She was upset about Epstein’s campaign and demanded that the paper squelch his Nov. 15 ad, which was to read: “YOO-HOO! MY CUTE KAKUTANI! — Leib Goldkorn is calling.” Two other ads bit the dust as well.

Goldkorn is the bumbling 94-year-old protagonist of three of Epstein’s books, most recently “Ice Fire Water,” which received warm reviews in the Los Angeles Times and the Sunday New York Times Book Review. Kakutani had given her own stamp of approval to Epstein’s 1985 “Goldkorn Tales.”

“Apparently she was unhappy and complained here,” said Bob Smith, the Times’ acceptability department manager. “Not to me personally, but complained. As we would do with any other person if their name is in an ad and they object, we got it out of there.”

What if Mayor Giuliani, who also figured in one of Epstein’s ads (“WHO TOOK RUDY GIULIANI’S TOUPEE? — Leib Goldkorn!”), demanded that the newspaper pull his name from the campaign, as he did over a series of New York magazine bus ads in 1997? “We try not to make judgments on hypothetical situations,” Smith said. “Now, if you’re talking about public officials, there’s probably a different slant on it. But in this case, here was a person who was clearly disturbed to have her name used this way, so we took it out.”

Did whoever initially signed off on the ads in October recognize Kakutani’s name? “I can’t speak for them,” Smith said. In any case, if they didn’t know who she was then, they do now. “Needless to say, at the time the ads were approved, we didn’t have any idea that anyone would be disturbed by them,” Smith went on, adding that he hadn’t seen the ads himself before they were cleared.

Epstein, who spent nearly all of his $10,000 advance on the campaign (despite the suggestion from his publisher, W.W. Norton, that he invest in something more conventional), has been left bewildered, if not bereft, by Kakutani’s response to his publicity stunt. “It’s a parody of the ‘Jewish women light your candles’ ad,” he says. “It’s a parody of the personals ad.”

He expects to get at least $3,000 back for the cancelled ads. Before asking the Times for a refund, however, he suggested a series of replacement ads to Smith, one of which would have read: “MY LOVE — Why do you wish to censor Leib Goldkorn?” The Times turned him down.

Kakutani did not return a call for comment.

Craig Offman is the New York correspondent for Salon Books. More Craig Offman.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Slave descendants seek equal rights from Cherokee Nation
56 points57 points | 3 comments
vote
Oklahoma senator who voted against federal funding for Hurricane Sandy victims: Tornado aid “totally different” from Sandy aid
38 points39 points | comment
vote
"Slave descendants seek equal rights from Cherokee Nation": long, detailed narrative of legal and historical complications in red-white-black relations
21 points22 points | comment
vote
Obama opposes GOP bill on Keystone XL oil pipeline: The White House said Tuesday that the bill “seeks to circumvent longstanding and proven processes” by removing a requirement for a presidential permit. The legislation also says no new environmental studies are needed.
21 points22 points | 2 comments
vote
Here come the tornado truthers. Already
7 points8 points | 8 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations