Unpopular Literary Opinions

[dwanollah]

I've had that reaction with a lot of supposedly-trashy good fun Chick Lit, batmom. I thought the Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing was so-so, Bridget Jones was moderately amusing but certainly not worth IDENTIFYING with, and gave up trying to read Prep, DWP, and a couple other Chick Lit standbys because I just... didn't... CARE! I'll stick to Princess Daisy and Lucky instead.

Never mind, Dwanollah, you can do it at the Christmas party.

Heh. First I'll lull y'all with the Rice Krispies treats, then... KABLOOEY!

[tinyshoes]

Topic: I hate DH Lawrence. His stories are depressing and dull and I find it impossible to care what happens to any of the characters.

When I read Lady Chatterly's Lover, I got halfway through when I thought, "Gee, for a dirty book, this is awful tedious."

[Deleted]

That's what I thought about The French Lieutenant's Wife.

I'd guess I'm one of the very, very few who likes books by Booth Tarkington. I love his ironic, dry sense of humor. I've never read books by any other male author who is able to portray the point of view of a girl/woman quite as well--really loved Alice Adams. Seventeen made me laugh a lot while I was reading it. (Just as a side note, his books do have some racial stereotyping-- sort of asides on very minor characters. But I guess that was the norm then, sort of like similar comments in Huckleberry Finn.)

[Deleted]

Am double posting only because it's been a long while!


Only posting this as unpopular, because I don't know anybody who likes George Eliot (except for one poster on FT who would valiantly try to pitch her on the Book Recommendation site), but anyway: I don't know of any other author who can do physical attraction/tension between characters in such an electric kind of way--and it's not overtly sexual, but there's such strong chemistry between them that you (the reader) can almost feel it--especially when it's between people who shouldn't be feeling it (like in "Mill on the Floss" between Maggie and the guy--forgot his name). Or Dorothea and Will in "Middlemarch."

[Deleted]

I can't stand Flannery O'Conner's work. It's not that I don't "get" it. It's just that it sucks.

Oh God, me too! She came highly recommended on the old boards, so I slogged through a book of her short stories. There was one good line in there; something about how a field of pigs looked like large spotted stones. The rest of it was filled with characters whom I wished would just die so I wouldn't have to read about their annoying and unlikeable selves anymore.

I've never been able to get into Austen. We had to read Emma last year for school, and I had been told it was the most overtly comic of her novels, so every time I found something amusing, I would perk up, pleased that I was finally getting it. Alas, thirty pages of dullness would then follow and I would realize that I had not, in fact, gotten it. I read Pride and Prejudice and thought it was okay, but it left no lasting impression on me.

[dwanollah]

*sobs*

O'Connor is SUCH an awesomely sick fuck!

[Cinchona]

I'm sobbing along with you, Dwanollah. Her Complete Stories is one of my most-read books.

Incidentally, which of her "awesomely sick" stories is your favorite? I love "Revelation," "The Comforts of Home," and "The Enduring Chill." "A Good Man is Hard to Find" always cracks me up in how the grandmother's every action sends her family closer to their deaths.

[dwanollah]

I have to pick ONE...? Hm.... I'm with you on those. Plus "Everything that Rises Must Converge" and "Good Country People." Just one, though? I'd take "Good Man" I think.

I've never been able to get into Austen.

Me either. I deeply pain one of my best friends who's a Romanticist. We have ongoing battles of Romantic v. Modern. I hate Wordsworth, too, which makes her cry. Of course, she thinks Hemingway is a misogynistic asshole. Like that's not part of his charm?!

[lyrasilver]

The only good thing about Emma is it makes Clueless more impressive as an interpretation of the story. The only way I got through it was thinking about which characters in Clueless were who in Emma and then realizing that Clueless is awesome, and Emma is just boring. Of course, I reallyreally liked both Wuthering Heights and Villette, and I totally see how people can hate both of those books too.

[marywebgirl]

Clueless is the only reason I got to page 30 of Emma before I couldn't do it anymore, lyrasilver.