The Resume

(October 19, 1937- )
Born in Milan, Italy
Staff writer for The New Yorker
Film critic for The New York Times (1968 - 69)
Wrote 'Towards A Radical Middle (1970),' 'A Year in the Dark (1970),' 'Speedboat (1976),' and 'Pitch Dark (1983)'
Best known for authoring the essay 'The Perils of Pauline' (1980)

Why she might be annoying:

Her stint with the Times lasted only a year.
Her writing has a penchant for hyperbolic rhetorical flourishes.
She wore her hair in the same French milk-maid twist her whole life.
She had a well-known (largely one-sided) rivalry with fellow critic Pauline Kael.
She called Kael's book 'jarringly, piece by piece, line by line, and without interruption, worthless' in a scathing review.
The published piece remains infamous and was described by Time magazine as 'the New York literary Mafia's bloodiest case of assault and battery in years' and 'the most sensational attack on Kael's reputation.' It has become shorthand for literary character assassination.

Why she might not be annoying:

Her family were refugees who fled Germany and later Italy to escape the Nazis.
She said: 'Fear is forward. No one is afraid of yesterday.'
She has the rare distinction of having worked for both the New Yorker and the New York Times.
She was unafraid to take on then-untouchable Pauline Kael.
Her short story ('Brownstone') won first prize in the O. Henry Awards.
Her 'Letter from Selma' essay frequently turns up in compilations of contemporary writings covering Civil Rights movement.
Her novel 'Speedboat' won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award.
She could write on American politics, humanitarian crises, movies, social policy, and soap operas with equal zeal.

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• BoyWiththeGreenHair’s Profiles [Series 16]
• Celebrities Born on the Same Date [October] (Ranked: 10191937)
• Chatty Cathies
• Film Critics
• Guggenheim Fellowship Grant Recipients
• I Attended Bryn Mawr College
• I Attended Georgetown
• I Attended Harvard
• I Attended Yale
• I Became a Mom in 1986
• Look at My Hair in Pig Tails/Braids
• Old Moms
• Pauline Kael Doesn't Like Me
• Profiles 47001-47250 (Ranked: 47175)
• Satirists and Wits
• Teachers

Year In Review:

For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 4 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying