New Yorker critic Janet Malcolm weighs in on "Gossip Girl" (for reals!)

In the current issue of The New Yorker, Janet Malcolm describes the [Gossip Girl] novels as a "Waughish achievement."  Like, seriously. Somehow the [74-year-old New Yorker](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Malcolm) critic at large, better known for her dessications of Joe McGinniss in The Journalist and the Murderer and of archivist Jeffrey Masson in In The Freud Archives, has chosen to turn her laser-beam analytical eye on the books that became the basis of the hit teen series on the CW network.

Children are a pleasure-seeking species, Malcolm reports, accurately enough, although her thesis – that the “tour de force” novels by Cecily von Ziegesar have been translated into “sluggish and crass” television episodes – may not find many children in agreement.  Still, how can you not read this?  Janet Malcolm on Gossip Girl – come on, that's sick!

Read Malcolm's [essay here].