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Gweniver
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Quote: The Thomas Covenant Chronicles (I agree wholeheartedly with Gweniver on that one) are about the most depressing books ever written, with a lead character who is unpleasant and with no redeeming feature. A miserable soulless rapist. Fantastic. Yep thats it...I have read some very good dark fantasy and have a reputation for loving dark Chinese,Thai,Japanese (eastern generally) films and books but the covenenat just didn't do it for me. For me there was just something too unsettling about the whole thing. To top it all the writing was pretty unimaginative too!!
This post was last edited by Gweniver, 30 Jun 2009, 11:00
"Between the times, the tempting bells were carried by eight purple horses" Frank Bornemann
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victrix
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Quote: sulcus, Tuesday, 30 Jun 2009 09:46Hey Victrix - awesome atavar Thanks Sulcus. I just quinted at yours too!
'Interregnum' and 'Marius' Mules' are now on sale. Visit http://www.sjaturney.co.uk for more information.
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leighvtwersky
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Quote: sulcus, Monday, 29 Jun 2009 23:27Quote: leighvtwersky, Monday, 29 Jun 2009 22:06Hard to say what the worst book I've EVER read is, but in recent years I found Everything Is illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer the most embarrassingly overhyped flaw-fest I have had the misfortune to come across in a long time. The best thing about Captain Corelli's Mandolin was that beautiful blue cover. As for a book I couldn't get past chapter one - Perfume by Patrick Susskind did me in (although the fact that the person who recommended it and I had got caught up in a nasty love triangle may have had something to do with it). There are others but I can't think of them right now Ha ha ha, I liked 2 of those 3 ! Haven't read the third. Hope we don't get assigned each other's work if this is anything to judge by ! Which 2 did you like?? Being assigned each other's work might actually prove very interesting. Or free willying it...
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sulcus
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Which 2 did you like??
Being assigned each other's work might actually prove very interesting. Or free willying it...
Perfume & Everything Is Illuminated
"A,B&E", "Not In My Name" and "52FF" (flash fiction anthology) all available on Amazon Kindle
"How a psychopath makes sweet love. I can get you ringside. Royal box even."
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leighvtwersky
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Quote: sulcus, Tuesday, 30 Jun 2009 23:50
Which 2 did you like??
Being assigned each other's work might actually prove very interesting. Or free willying it...
Perfume & Everything Is Illuminated
Perfume I can't really comment on as I never made it to chapter 2, but i do have strong opinions about Everything is Illuminated.
I found the whole narrative about Trachimbrod heart-sinkingly unreadable - an attempt at some kind of magic realism that didn't work for me. The characters were so weird not one of them was of any interest as there was no variation between mundane and extraordinary.
Alex's story was much better and there were some very good bits - the awkwardness of the American narrator in such a relatively poor country was very well described and quite humorous. But I loathed his broken English. Probably because I teach English to foreign adults I instantly saw how utterly contrived it was. No amount of suspension of disbelief could convince me that a person with such a poor grasp of vocabulary would have perfect grammar. And it wasn't particularly funny. Just tricksy.
However, the story of Jonathan's quest became more and more gripping, despite all the distractions. So a novel with promise but not deserving of the fulsome praise heaped on it on the cover and the first few pages. Plus I had a lot of queries about the end - contradictions, loose ends etc. For me, very much 2 out of 5. But interesting to discuss various reactions to it.
What did you like about it? (remember I thought some bits were good, but overall it failed for me as a novel.
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sulcus
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It's weird, everyone's hostile reactions seem to arise because the book garnered so much critical attention. I hadn't come across any of it and so was relatively unscathed and uninfluenced when I picked the book up. I enjoyed it. Yes some of the conceits don't hold water, but I didn't let that stop me enjoying the whole. But there again, I like books that work on an imagistic/symbolic plane, neither realism nor escapism. His voice didn't bother me. He wasn't my interperator particularly. The vanished world of the shtetl was conjured up wonderfully for me. I have to say though, his follow up book dealing with 9/11 through the eyes of a bereaved 10 year old boy I absolutely loved. Even though I'm sure most readers would have hated it for all the same reasons. I loved that kid's voice and will probably go back and re-read it at an idle moment, which is something I rarely do.
This post was last edited by sulcus, 01 Jul 2009, 22:55
"A,B&E", "Not In My Name" and "52FF" (flash fiction anthology) all available on Amazon Kindle"How a psychopath makes sweet love. I can get you ringside. Royal box even."
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leighvtwersky
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Quote: sulcus, Wednesday, 1 Jul 2009 22:55It's weird, everyone's hostile reactions seem to arise because the book garnered so much critical attention. I hadn't come across any of it and so was relatively unscathed and uninfluenced when I picked the book up. I enjoyed it. Yes some of the conceits don't hold water, but I didn't let that stop me enjoying the whole. But there again, I like books that work on an imagistic/symbolic plane, neither realism nor escapism. His voice didn't bother me. He wasn't my interperator particularly. The vanished world of the shtetl was conjured up wonderfully for me. I have to say though, his follow up book dealing with 9/11 through the eyes of a bereaved 10 year old boy I absolutely loved. Even though I'm sure most readers would have hated it for all the same reasons. I loved that kid's voice and will probably go back and re-read it at an idle moment, which is something I rarely do. My negative feelings arose not because of the critical attention, but because it was such a devastating disappointment. The subject matter is of great interest to me, and it was that which drew me to the book in the first place, but I felt he didn't do it the justice it deserved. And ultimately I couldn't believe in Alex, or the characters in the shtetl. A common problem with dual or multiple narratives. My heart sank every time I realized I would have to plough through the brick wall of tedium that was his shtetl history section before i could return to the far more interesting story of Jonathan's quest to find the woman who saved his grandfather. One of my other problems with the shtetl characters (apart from their contrived OTT weirdness) was that sometimes they spoke like early 21st century American teenagers, and then there was the issue of Alex's father abusing him which suddenly appeared out of nowhere at the end...not to mention the whole anti-semitism/holocaust theme which I didn't feel he tackled strongly enough...so although I did find all that critical aclaim embarrassingly unmerited, for me it was the book itself that let me down. As for his sequel I haven't felt any urge to read it.
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sulcus
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If you want superficial treatments of big themes, try Martin Amis' "Time's Arrow", or rather don't. It is trite.
"A,B&E", "Not In My Name" and "52FF" (flash fiction anthology) all available on Amazon Kindle"How a psychopath makes sweet love. I can get you ringside. Royal box even."
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sulcus
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Sequel ? I didn't know there was a sequel. Don't get me wrong, it wouldn't get into my all time top twenty novels or anything. But I did enjoy it.
"A,B&E", "Not In My Name" and "52FF" (flash fiction anthology) all available on Amazon Kindle"How a psychopath makes sweet love. I can get you ringside. Royal box even."
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leighvtwersky
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Quote: sulcus, Friday, 3 Jul 2009 08:21Sequel ? I didn't know there was a sequel. Don't get me wrong, it wouldn't get into my all time top twenty novels or anything. But I did enjoy it. sequel - oops i meant follow-up/second novel - up loud close and personal, or something like that.
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What's the worst book you've ever read
30 Jun 2009, 11:00
