...a novelist tasked with reviewing a scholarly analysis of a novelist's work...is akin to asking the electrician to take a look at the plumbing. Scholars and novelists have fundamental differences about how to understand works of fiction. The best fiction is, to some degree, ineffable [too great or extreme to be expressed in words]--no matter how deeply she digs, the reader of a masterly work cannot precisely explain what she has experienced. [In other words, the novel doesn't make any sense or the reader is just too stupid to comprehend the great author's work.]
Ayana Mathis, The New York Times Book Review, September 13, 2020
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