Lev Grossman pans The Clinton Wars in TIME, what did readers think about his book?

Ending a surprising review - "dull, predictable" -- "To us, the events he describes already feel like they happened decades ago, but he writes as if they just happened yesterday — with a brittle, unpleasant, debater's edge, still eager to score points and settle scores. The Clinton Wars is neither history nor journalism nor memoir. It's just more politics."

What did readers at Amazon have to write on his debut, after a friend wrote the first review -- "This book is infantile trash," wrote the next reader. "Rarely have I read a book quite as puerile as this one." One star. "Unreadably trite. The main character is extremely self-absorbed and the narration suffers from the author's arch media references." Two stars. "Worthless tripe ... The world doesn't need any more books like this." One star.

So he lied - As a novelist, I'm comfortable with fictional alter egos, so I went undercover. "I loved this book," I wrote, posing as "a reader from" (for some reason) "Philadelphia." "I highly recommend it." Five stars.

But the readers struck back. "Lame, lame, lame ... I kept waiting for the book to get better. It didn't." One star. "Nothing to write home about. Read this book in 30 minutes standing up in a bookstore. Didn't seem to demand closer reading than that." One star. Thanks for nothing, Washington, D.C.

How could I stand by and watch this happen? It was like seeing your kid die onstage in his fourth-grade musical. "To the person below who gave the book 30 minutes, I say, keep reading!" I wrote, this time assuming the guise of a reader from Atlanta. "It's hilarious the way Grossman weaves the story together ... The best debut I've read in ages." Five stars.

For a few months, silence from both sides. Were they on to me? Could the readers, like killer bees, like rattlesnakes, smell my fear? Fuck 'em, I say! "Fabulous," I wrote, a little hysterically, as "reader from New York" (my disguise was wearing thin). "Utterly original ... Don't miss this -- really." Five stars. At least I'd managed to up my average rating (helpfully computed for me by the folks at Amazon) to a break-even two and a half stars.

In October, exactly a year after "Warp's" official publication date, the last (so far) of my customer comments appeared. It stuck to the formula. "Not only did I not like this book," a reader from Los Angeles wrote, "but I resent the fact I spent time reading it. I strongly suggest that this book remain unread." One star.

All of this was from an article he wrote in Salon.

Considering his demonstrated character I am tempted to write him at grossman@pathfinder.com to ask if he actually read the book. What do you think?