“Kakutani is a one-woman kamikaze. She disdains white male authors, and I’m her number-one favorite target. One of her cheap tricks is to bring out your review two weeks in advance of publication. She trashes it just to hurt sales and embarrass the author … But The Times’ editors can’t fire her. They’re terrified of her. With discrimination rules and such, well, she’s a threefer: Asiatic, feminist, and, ah, what’s the third? Well, let’s just call her a twofer. They get two for one. She is a token. And, deep down, she probably knows it.”

—Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author Norman Mailer on one-time Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Michiko Kakutani.

Victor Tan Chen Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen