Michiko Kakutani | |
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 Accepting the 2018Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award | |
| Born | (1955-01-09)January 9, 1955 (age 71) New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Other names | Michi |
| Education | Yale University (BA) |
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| Relatives | Yoshiko Uchida (aunt) |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize for Criticism (1998) |
Michiko Kakutani (ミチコ・カクタニ,角谷美智子; born January 9, 1955) is an American writer and retired literary critic, best known for reviewing books forThe New York Times from 1983 to 2017. In that role, she won thePulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998.
Kakutani, aJapanese American, was born on January 9, 1955, inNew Haven, Connecticut. She is the only child of Yale mathematicianShizuo Kakutani and Keiko "Kay" Uchida. Her father was born in Japan, and her mother was asecond-generation Japanese-American raised inBerkeley, California.[1][2] Kakutani's aunt,Yoshiko Uchida, was an author of children's books.[1] Kakutani received her bachelor's degree in English literature fromYale University in 1976.[3]
Kakutani initially worked as a reporter forThe Washington Post, and then from 1977 to 1979 forTime magazine. In 1979, she joinedThe New York Times as a reporter.[3]
Kakutani was a literary critic forThe New York Times from 1983 until her retirement in 2017.[3] She gained particular notoriety for her sometimes-biting reviews of books from famous authors;Slate remarked that "her name became a verb, and publishers have referred to her negative reviews as 'getting Kakutani'ed'".[4]
Multiple authors who had received such reviews gave harsh public responses. In 2006, Kakutani calledJonathan Franzen'sThe Discomfort Zone "an odious self-portrait of the artist as a young jackass";[5] Franzen subsequently called Kakutani "the stupidest person in New York City".[6][7] In 2012, Kakutani wrote a negative review ofNassim Nicholas Taleb'sAntifragile.[8][non-primary source needed][original research?] In 2018, writing about reviewers that include Kakutani—whether about theAntifragile review, or otherwise—six years afterAntifragile, Taleb stated:
someone has to have read the book to notice that a reviewer is full of baloney, so in the absence of skin in the game, reviewers such as Michiko Kakutani can go on forever without anyone knowing they are either fabricating or drunk (or, as I am certain, in the case of Kakutani, both)[9]
Daniel Takeshi, an academic computer scientist, responded to Taleb: "If you can get used to Taleb’s idiosyncratic and pompous writing style, such as mocking...Thomas L. Friedman... and insulting Michiko Kakutani... there's actually some nice insights".[10] According toKira Cochrane inThe Guardian, such counterattacks may have bolstered Kakutani's reputation as commendably "fearless".[6]
She has been known to write reviews in the voice of movie or book characters, includingBrian Griffin,[11]Austin Powers,[12]Holden Caulfield,[13] Elle Woods ofLegally Blonde,[14] andTruman Capote's character Holly Golightly inBreakfast at Tiffany's.[15]
Kakutani announced that she was stepping down as chief book critic of theTimes on July 27, 2017.[7][16] In an article summarizing her book reviewing career, a writer inVanity Fair called her "the most powerful book critic in the English-speaking world" and credited her with boosting the careers ofGeorge Saunders,Mary Karr,David Foster Wallace,Jonathan Franzen,Ian McEwan,Martin Amis, andZadie Smith.[7]
In 2018, Kakutani published a book criticizing theTrump administration,The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump.[17] In it, Kakutani draws parallels betweenpostmodern philosophy and the number offalse or misleading statements made by Trump. In an interview for the book, she argued:[18]
With its suspicion of grand, overarching narratives, postmodernism emphasized the role that perspective plays in shaping our readings of texts and events [...] and it opened the once-narrow gates of history to heretofore marginalized points of view. But as such, ideas seeped into popular culture and merged with the narcissism of the 'Me Decade' [and] also led to a more reductive form ofrelativism that allowed people to insist that their opinions were just as valid as objective truths verified by scientific evidence or serious investigative reporting".
Kakutani's second book,Ex-Libris: 100+ Books to Read and Re-Read, an essay collection about books that she considers personally and culturally influential, was published in 2020. The artistDana Tanamachi [simple] designed the cover and illustrated thirty of the titles in the style of vintage-inspired bookplates.[19]
In 2024, Kakutani published her third book,The Great Wave: The Era of Radical Disruption and the Rise of the Outsider.[20]
Kakutani is a fan of theNew York Yankees.[21][22] As of 2018[update], she lives on theUpper West Side of Manhattan.[23]
During her career atThe New York Times, Kakutani developed a reputation as an extremely private person who was seldom seen in public, with articles describing her as "mysterious" and "reclusive".[24][25][26] Shawn McCreesh, writing inNew York magazine, said that "you were likelier to have seen a snow leopard in Manhattan than to meet Kakutani in the wild".[23] Upon the publication ofThe Death of Truth, Kakutani gave interviews to print outlets and continued to decline to appear on television.[23]
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