Books on the Nightstand discussion

This never used to bother me but lately I have run up against a string of author blurbs on the back of books that either completely mis-characterize the book or establish unrealistic expectations for the writing.

The most recent example is The Dog Stars, in which Glen Duncan in his blurb on the back mentions McCarthy and The Road. And another blurb compares Peter Heller's style to Hemingway. These two blurbs feel like the completely miss the point of the book and only succeed in establishing my expectations for the book and writing style before I have even cracked the spine. It is unfair to Heller. The book bears little similarity to The Road, other than being post-apocalyptic, and the Hemingway comparison seems to apply because Heller writes in small broken paragraphs.

My question is: what are (or were the purposes of these blurbs) and in the this digital age of Goodreads and Amazon are we beyond the need for the authorial blurb? I also have a sinking feeling (based on other book's blurbs) that the authors are not giving a thorough read, and are just trying to out-hyperbole the other submissions for, perhaps, the free publicity for their own books.

Am I just being cynical? Thoughts or examples of good or bad blurbs?

Ah, my friend, welcome to the land of mutual back-patting! Sometimes blurbs are thoughtful but often it's one author with a big name endorsing a friend. I wish I could say it's more than marketing but after reviewing and hobnobbing for a decade I hate to say it's largely an exchange of name-recognition. It often means very little. Not always but, well, usually. I have a friend who's publishing her first novel so I hooked her up with a name brand writer friend of mine. So, I'm just as guilty. I know he'll really read the book but he's just a real sweetheart doing a favor. And so it goes.

I'll also mention that sometimes the blurbs are there to convey to the potential reader that "if you like x, you might like this." Of course that can backfaire as well. If you don't like author x who is blurbing this book, you may very well miss a book that could change your life.

And sometimes those blurbs are completely genuine. A very famous author once called an editor at our house to say that he wanted to blurb the book this editor was working on. Everybody thought it was someone playing a joke on the editor, but it was not. This author called (himself, not via assistant) to give his enthusiastic endorsement to a young novelist that he didn't know, hadn't heard of, and nobody was even sure where he had gotten a copy of the manuscript to read.

The reality is that we (the grand "we") need some information beyond an image to make the decision to read or not to read. Yes, online reviews can give you some of that, but most books are still purchased or selected from real-life brick and mortar (or glass and steel) locations.