Let It Go (If You Can)

I’m a fan of the serenity prayer; in order to keep moving forward in this life, you have to learn to let things go. Which makes it that much more embarrassing when, for whatever reason, I can’t. A related piece of advice that authors often hear is: don’t read your reviews. While I can appreciate the psychological wisdom of that recommendation, I’m too curious not to peek. For the most part, the reader reviews of Believe in Me (my 2011 debut novel) on Amazon are hearteningly positive. Still, there’s one whose critique has stuck around, needling me, for more than a decade. You’d think by now I would’ve been able to let it go… but apparently not. One anonymous reader—who seems to have enjoyed the book overall, despite being annoyed by one particular element—wrote: “…then we are offered the character [the GOP’s Darcy Kendrick] against whom the despicable candidate [Democrat...

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