Last week, in a letter to the NY Times.
To the Editor:
Re “Pick a Topic, Any Topic. He Did†(Books of The Times, Aug. 13):
Michiko Kakutani, in her review of my book of essays “The Way the World Works,†says of me: “He even seems to suggest some sort of moral equivalence between the Nazis and the Allies.†I certainly don’t suggest that, and as I’ve repeatedly said in public, I totally reject the notion of moral equivalence as a way of looking at World War II.
Each murder, whether in war or peace, is a separate wrong: one of the things we have to do to get ourselves moving in the right direction — away from retribution, vengeance, payback — is to stop bundling deaths together and weighing them on a giant scale.
NICHOLSON BAKER
South Berwick, Me., Aug. 13, 2012