Michiko Kakutani

Not to be confused with Michio Kaku.

Michiko Kakutani
Born	(1955-01-09) January 9, 1955 New Haven, Connecticut
Nationality	American
Other names	Michi
Education	Yale University
Occupation	Critic, writer
Parent(s)	Shizuo Kakutani

Michiko "Michi" Kakutani (角谷 美智子, Kakutani Michiko, born January 9, 1955) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for The New York Times.

Biography

Early life

Kakutani, a Japanese American, was born on January 9, 1955, in New Haven, Connecticut. She is the only child of Yale mathematician Shizuo Kakutani. She received her B.A. in English literature from Yale University in 1976, where she studied under author and Yale writing professor John Hersey, among others.

Career

She initially worked as a reporter for the Washington Post, and then from 1977 to 1979 for Time magazine, where Hersey had worked. In 1979, she joined The New York Times as a reporter.

Kakutani has been a literary critic for The New York Times since 1983. Her periodically harsh reviews of some prominent authors have garnered both attention and, on occasion, criticism. She has been known to write reviews in the voice of movie or book characters, including Brian Griffin, Austin Powers, Holden Caulfield, Elle Woods of Legally Blonde, and Truman Capote's character Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Criticism

On July 19, 2007, The New York Times published a pre-release story written by Kakutani about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. An account of the ensuing controversy, including the critical comments of some Harry Potter fans, can be found on the Times Public Editor's blog.

Kakutani was parodied in the essay "I Am Michiko Kakutani" by one of her former Yale classmates, Colin McEnroe.

Media references

• A fictionalized account of Kakutani's life entitled "Michiko Kakutani and the Sadness of the World!" was published in the online and print magazine Essays & Fictions.
• She is mentioned in The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. J.K. Rowling).
• She is referenced in an episode of the HBO series Sex and the City. In "Critical Condition" (season 5, episode 6), Carrie Bradshaw releases a book that Kakutani reviews. Various characters deem the critic's name "too hard to pronounce," including Miranda Hobbes, who memorably states, "Just don't say her name again — it will drive me over the edge."
• Kakutani is mentioned in an episode of the short-lived ABC sitcom It's Like, You Know... (season 2, episode 4).
• She is mentioned in an episode of HBO's Girls (season 3, episode 5).
• In The Affair, a publisher who wants to print Noah Solloway's second novel tells him that "Michi Kakutani will flip for this, and she hates everything" (season 1, episode 10).
• She is mentioned in the fourth and final season of The O.C.

Awards

• 1998: Pulitzer Prize for Criticism

External links

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