Fiction you warn people against?

What about the writing style bothered you?

My answer is in my post and I've covered this topic before.

Do you ever post anything that isn't a question?

Saramago developed that style in his second novel; if you're not taken with it by now, you'd better just give him up honestly, I love his work, I don't love any other contemporary writer as much as I do him, but I doubt you can't find more writers who say the same and write in a traditional manner.

Blindness didn't presume to reveal anyone the nature of Mankind; Saramago speculates on how people would act in the fantastic situation of universal blindness. If Saramago doesn't portray Mankind positively, it's because he's a 84-years old and has lived in a century in which it's difficult to be an optimist. Even so, Blindness's darkness is regularly counterbalanced with unpredictable moments of Love. For that matter,Lord of Flies has a far more over-the-top view of human nature. Unlike Golding, who stuck with DARKNESS for the rest of his career (don't fix what's not broken, if it worked with one novel, it works for ten more, hey look, they gave me the Nobel Prize for Despair), Saramago usually has a lot more to say about Mankind than the usual doom and gloom. But unless you read more, you won't know that

I don't know what to make of your point about structure; it seemed conventional to me: event A leads to B, leads to C, leads to D, etc., all the way to Z. The End. It was in fact one of Saramago's most straightforward plots.

Miss_Tolstoy said:

Ditto. That book is a dissapointment. After Jane Eyre one assumes... but then gets it all wrong. It would be interesting to find anyone who acctually likes this book? Personally could not stand it!

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'Wuthering Heights'? I love it. And to compare it with 'Jane Eyre' - well I read 'Jane Eyre' when I was about 18. And enjoyed it. Now I'm 49. I first read 'Wuthering Heights' a few years ago. Have re-read it since. Will re-read it again. If 'Wuthering Heights' is champagne, 'Jane Eyre' is, well, bog-standard supermarket 'plonk'. There is no comparison. Oh, there's nothing wrong with 'Jane Eyre', but 'Wuthering Heights' is in a class of its own. For what it's worth I think you need to read it twice before it makes complete sense. And I dare say if you were 'forced' to read it at a young age for, say, English Literature classes, you might struggle to appreciate it.

I seriously doubt that I would bother reading 'Jane Eyre' again, unless perhaps my daughter has it as a set work.

Miss_Tolstoy said:

Ditto. That book is a dissapointment. After Jane Eyre one assumes... but then gets it all wrong. It would be interesting to find anyone who actually likes this book? Personally could not stand it!

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I liked Wuthering Heights.

Mr and Mrs Paul Auster

I have tried two books by Paul Auster and his partner Siri Hustvedt, and I discovered that I could not stand any of them.

Paul Auster's "City of Glass" if a very tiring attempt of the author to appear really intellectual. And Siri Hustvedts "What I loved" is simply annoying. When she tells you for the x-th time about the latest artistic developments of her character "Bill" (a sophisticated woman's wet dream) you cannot help but ask yourself: "Who the f... cares ?"

There are many bad books, of course. But what makes these two so annoying is the fact, that they have been written by people with real talent. One feels like dragging the two of them out of their ivory tower of New York intellectual life and shout at them: "Get some real life !"

Is there any hope ?

Houellebecq slagging Auster...is Updike going to show up and slag Houellebecq?

the catcher in the rye
Wicked: started out good but got dull
Eragon/Eldest: I have a feeling i'm not the only one here who sees Paolini's lack of talent and overeffort at writing engaging prose. Plus al the stuff he copied.
The English Patient: I was probably too young to read it at 14, but it just didn't draw me in.

*starts dodging flying objects*

Oh, you don't like "The Catcher in the Rye" ?

This get's me really depressed...

I rather wished I had passed up The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe when I was in first grade. I saw it and thought since it was such a small book that it was meant for kids, and bought it at my school's book fair. (I went to a kindergarten-grade eight school, so I can only assume it was meant for the middle-schoolers.) When I got to the part where he I cried so hard that my mother came into the room and took the book from me. I remember her saying something about how she couldn't believe they let a seven-year-old buy a book by a famous horror author, and ever since then I have had an intense fear of holding knives, especially small ones. Every time I so much as see one I am afraid that I'll go crazy and stab someone in the eye with it, which is of course completely irrational....

The ironic thing is, when I got to seventh grade, I started reading Poe's poetry and fell in love with it. He became one of my favorite writers. It wasn't until I got an anthology of his work that I discovered it was him who wrote The Black Cat. I suppose I had forgotten the author's name in favor of the awful mental images I had afterwards. So his story had its desired effect. It was certainly traumatizing, especially for a little girl who loves cats.

bwahahahhahhahahahhahahah... *takes breath*

hahahahhahahhahahhahahhahaahahahahhahahahhahha.

That's what I love about Poe. If he was alive today, PETA would be on his ass.

It's ironice, isn't it? People hate King for writing about kicking a dog in the Dead Zone, but not Edgar. The hypocrisy...

Someone was complaining about Stephen King writing about kicking dogs? I have seen so much worse than that. Well, you read my last comment in this thread. I think that's a perfect example. Ick. I just feel so sorry for the poor kitty.