In this week's coverage of the New York Times Book Review, Intern Alexis delves into the Jewtastic world of letters, taking time to tackle Gore Vidal while pointing out the NYTBR's new punk rock take on things. In a week without any mentions of the Jonathans Lethem or Foer, Alexis finds there's plenty of room to take down androgynous hipsterbot JT LeRoy. After the jump, her weekly dive into the bookish abyss.

Letters to the Editor
We ll stop talking about the ridiculousness of the letters page when it stops being ridiculous! This week s letters page is dominated by Jews from New York and one Jew from Newton, Massachusetts, all kvetching about Wendy Shalit s January 30th essay. But, really, who are we kidding? No one else reads books besides Jews from New York and Jews from wealthy Boston suburbs.

Essay: James Purdy: The Novelist as Outlaw
By Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal name-drops his way through his essay on the writer James Purdy. We get it Gore, you re famous! And you re friends with famous people! But you re not so famous that you can get away with this exercise in literary-masturbation: On Purdy s latest book jackets I hail him as an authentic American genius. Oh, barfola! Quoting your own blurbs is way gauche. Here is something that is funny though and makes Vidal (and the NYTBR editors) look a bit like fools. In giving a bit of background information on Purdy s life, he writes, From 1949 to 1953 he taught at Lawrence College in Wisconsin and then
lived abroad for some years (where?). He now lives in Brooklyn. No, we did not add that (where?). That is actually in the essay. If Purdy lives in Brooklyn, why didn t someone hop on the 4/5 train and ask him where(?) he spent his time overseas? This reminds us of the time when we couldn t think of a funny ending for one of our Reading About Readings and we wrote in ZINGER? hoping Jessica would help us out, but then she just kept ZINGER? in ( I thought you were just being crazy, she told us at the time), and then we looked a bit like a fool.

Martin Van Buren by Ted Widmer
Reviewed by Michael Kazin
What with the redesign, and the NYTBR pushing envelopes like it s their job, we wanted to point out an example of how punk rock the NYTBR has become. In his review of Ted Widmer s new Martin Van Buren biography, Martin Kazin writes: Fortunately, this Rod Dangerfield of presidents has landed a splendid biographer. Comparing Van Buren to Rodney Dangerfield? Ahhh - punk fucking rock!

Harold s End by JT LeRoy
Reviewed by Albert Mobilo
Finally, someone says something a little mean about everyone s favorite it-boy, literal butt-boy, literary darlin , JT Leroy. Albert Mobilo points out that "Harold s End" has been padded to the brim with quotes from bold-faced names such as Dave Eggers and Michael Ray with acknowledgements to Billy Corgan, Gus Van Sant, Tatum O Neal, Lou Reed, etc and reads a bit more like a shiny post-card of a book than an actual work of fiction. Who s a wunderkind now, eh? EH!?

The Underminer: Or, The Best Friend Who Casually Destroys Your Life by Mike Albo with Virginia Heffernan
Reviewed by Lisa Zeidner
Lisa Zeidner likes Mike Albo-with-Virginia Heffernan s trendy The Underminer, but ultimately thinks that, Although Albo and Heffernan pull off the trick of making the entire novel a transcript of one character s speech, the device sometimes feels gimmicky, as devices will. And Zeidner, of all people, should know a thing or two about gimmicky devices - just see her opening paragraph of the review, written in the gimmicky style of the book. We know writing snappy ledes is a difficult task, but don t fucking undermine yourself by hating on gimmicks right after you whip out the biggest gimmick in the book. If we take one thing away from this book and this review it s that the best advice is this: be your own best friend and look out for yourself. Check yourself before you wreck yourself.