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The Most overrated fiction book ever?

There's a film adaptation to that isn't there? I haven't read the book, but thought that the film was very good - probably appeal more to females, though.
 
Hmmm, that's got to be The Da Vinci Code and The Lord of the Rings in joint first place. Too much hype. :rolleyes:

And I didn't much care for Catch 22 either.
 
You really think Catch 22 is overrated? I've been hearing so many good things about it that I'm tempted to give it a read.

Cheers
 
Taking the long view, I think bad fiction fades from the culture over time, so it's hard to say what's most overrated fiction ever. I'm amazed at the sheer number of really awful books in any library, most of which were probably popular when they came out. There are shelves full of C.P. Snow with glowing reviews on the back. He sold really well for decades, and was viewed as quite 'literary.' Ever read one of them? The long sleep of the thoroughly bored will overcome you for the duration.
 
Novella is right, the hyped stuff will be forgotten in ten years (Dan who?) - what we need to look for is a book that's acknowledged as a classic but is still shit.

May I nominate: Wuthering Heights?
 
I think the title is Snow Falling on Cedars but it was soooo dull that I may not have remembered it correctly. I was expecting something great but, YAWN, it was dull and I didn't care one iota about any of the characters.
 
...but I agree with Stew that Catch-22 is overrated, if only slightly. Heller should be remembered for Something Happened instead.
 
Mari said:
The Bridges of Madison County.

Can I get an Amen on that?
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Sorry, I'm too big a fan of Robert James Waller to agree with you! Try his book 'Old Songs in a New Cafe' - it's a collection of short stories. I don't usually read such things, but this is one of my all time most favorite books. I read Bridges after that and really enjoyed it...

My contribution is bloody D. H. Lawrence and his Sons and Lovers. I think I've nominated that for a few craptacular awards, but I'll chip it in again here. It's old and sucks as heartily as the day it was written, IMHO.
 
I love D.H. Lawrence! I can almost smell the atmosphere he creates in Women in Love.

I think a more useful and interesting question is what forgotten, great fiction needs to be revived and put back in bookstores?

Think I'll start a thread on that, so as not to steer this one away.
 
I have heard Women in Love was very good, actually. I was referring to only Sons and Lovers in my post, however. I found none of the characters likable, and the women were mostly subjugated and flakey to my way of thinking. It made my skin crawl. Perhaps it isn't 'overated', persay. I just despised it and thought a lot of its praise looked at his writing style (which I did like) rather than the story.
 
You're right, Kook. Lawrence's women are often flakey and flighty. I've read Sons and Lovers and liked that as well, though I liked Women in Love more.

I guess the way he portrays women doesn't bother me. I always thought it reflected the social circles he traveled in at the time--the Bloomsbury group had more than its fair share of flakey privileged women, who seemed to be always naked in a garden with a bit of chiffon thrown around the neck, ready to cavort through the woodland. I don't read his books as a general portray of people, but as a particular idiosyncratic and insulated group.

But I can see how that aspect would be annoying.
 
At my school im being forced to read "Go Ask Alice", I really hate the book, nothing but a teenager who get involved with drugs, really retarted
 
Yossarian89 said:
At my school im being forced to read "Go Ask Alice", I really hate the book, nothing but a teenager who get involved with drugs, really retarted
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Reading "Go Ask Alice" mandatorily in school is the perfect example of subverting literary education--which should be about the depth, beauty, and plasticity of language-- by making it a pedantic sociological platform. That sucks. Maybe as a part of a Health curriculum it would fit. Or maybe it's part of an exploration of the diary/memoir form. Did you also read Anne Frank or Kerouac or any other things in that genre to compare with?
 
Yossarian89 said:
At my school im being forced to read "Go Ask Alice", I really hate the book, nothing but a teenager who get involved with drugs, really retarted
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I thought this book was really good. I agree it's not exactly a literary wonder, but it tackles the themes very well, and the gaps between entries really makes you wonder what was going on in this girl's mind. One day she's on top of the world and about to call her folks, and the next entry is a month later when she's back on the habit. She wants to quit and get out, but the culture drags her back into it. Is she weak willed or was in inevitable? It's a very sad story. What made you hate it? The subject matter, the way it was written, or the characters?

I think this would be a great book at the Grade 9 level, both for exploring the diary/journal format as well as looking at some of the central themes. I say this assuming that there are more books studied than just this one during the school year - how many books do schools set each year?
 
The reason why I dis-like Go Ask Alice is becuase me as a person, can't really relate to the topic, becuase Im not one of those teenagers going through it, Im a person who laughs in the background at them. The 2nd reason is because I hate books where the person is whineing all the time. Alice repeats herself a lot throughout the book and I can't stand it. And 3rd reason, is becuase I just can't stand reading about teenage adolescents. Even though I'm 15, I don't want to read about some girls problem with drugs and sex.
 
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