THE ABSOLUTE FAN

Enthusiasm as a tool for cultural critique is one which adheres strictly to laws of scarcity. A good reviewer knows that if they were to offer unfettered enthusiasm about too many of the restaurants, books, albums or films which came into their orbit they would render that excitement functionally useless to their audiences. Some deal with this by choosing never to indulge, critiquing culture from a lofty position even when faced with the very best of what the world’s creatives have to offer. Others know that a little bit of hyperbole deployed ever so sparingly can be used to considerable effect.

In January this year, senior editor Dan Kois of the popular American website Slate wrote of New Zealand author Elizabeth Knox’s 2019: “It is an experience of continuous awe … In the same way it’s occasionally clarifying to inch your feet up to the edge of a precipice and take a good look down, it’s quite bracing to come up against the hard edge of your own imagination as you try to pursue a visionary author through the limitless expanse of hers.”