Letters to the Editor
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Oh, now, it wasn't all that bad.
I'm not sure what has sparked so much animosity, but I don't think it was THAT bad. Perhaps not up to the standards we think Salon should stand for, but why the anger?
If Sloane was in my writing group, back when I was doing the writing group thing, we would probably all agree that this was amusing but not ready. We would talk about finding that extra little layer of resonance, and how it could easily be cut by a third, and things like that.
I think the key to understanding this piece is to look at the book jacket blurbs: comparisons to David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell. Sloane's essay is written to be read aloud. Very soon, cute little Sloane will be traveling around as Sedaris and Vowell do, reading her work, and having the recordings played on "All Things Droll" on NPR. And so it goes.
As a writer myself, I can understand some of the frustration expressed here. I've written many an essay that's certainly no worse than this, and very likely much better. I've marketed them until I got a Special Award of Meritorious Achievement from the US Postal Service, yet between Sloane and I, one of us has a book deal and a career path, and one of us has a giant box full of rejection letters. And that, as a friend of mine used to say, is how the cow ate the cabbage.