So, here is a partial list of books that I gave up on this year, along with some very subjective reasons why:
Amy Tan's The Valley of Amazement:
I was really excited about this book when it first came out. I loved The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God's Wife, but I hadn't read anything else by Tan since I was an undergraduate.
The Valley of Amazement is ok. I didn't particularly care about the main character, and that made me realize that part of what I liked about The Joy Luck Club was how engaging and real the characters felt. I don't always have to like the characters in a novel, but it isn't a good sign when I just don't care about what's happening to the main character.
In the long run, it wasn't the main character that made me give up on this one, but instead a graphic scene involving a medical procedure that left me feeling queasy. Maybe that's being too sensitive on my part, but, added to the fact that I didn't care much about the storyline, I just didn't feel like continuing to read. I don't think that we need to go so far as to put trigger warnings on all new novels, although that's a complicated issue that I will write more about at some point. At the same time, I'm just not particularly interested in reading graphic descriptions of violence or brutal medical procedures. If that makes me an overly sensitive reader, or if it means that I'm unwilling to tackle gritty subjects, that's just the way it is.
Bernhardt Wilton's Lookaway, Lookaway:
I was really excited about this book when it first came out. I loved The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God's Wife, but I hadn't read anything else by Tan since I was an undergraduate.
The Valley of Amazement is ok. I didn't particularly care about the main character, and that made me realize that part of what I liked about The Joy Luck Club was how engaging and real the characters felt. I don't always have to like the characters in a novel, but it isn't a good sign when I just don't care about what's happening to the main character.
In the long run, it wasn't the main character that made me give up on this one, but instead a graphic scene involving a medical procedure that left me feeling queasy. Maybe that's being too sensitive on my part, but, added to the fact that I didn't care much about the storyline, I just didn't feel like continuing to read. I don't think that we need to go so far as to put trigger warnings on all new novels, although that's a complicated issue that I will write more about at some point. At the same time, I'm just not particularly interested in reading graphic descriptions of violence or brutal medical procedures. If that makes me an overly sensitive reader, or if it means that I'm unwilling to tackle gritty subjects, that's just the way it is.
Dave Eggers's The Circle:
Topic-wise, I should have loved this novel. I feel all sorts of ambivalence toward Facebook, and I can imagine really enjoying a conspiracy-theory book about corporate data-mining. However, this one left me completely cold for many reasons, not least of which that the main character is a non-entity.
Even more than that, I found certain elements totally unbelievable. Obviously, something this dystopic is going to have unrealistic elements, but they have to be somewhat credible. It felt like Eggers was slipping up on details that should be easy. For example, the online customer service help desk that the main character works at isn't remotely like a customer service desk anywhere. In what world does a list of FAQ's really answer all the scenarios that your customers ask about? In the tech world? Really? Then, in what world are ALL your customers that satisfied, no matter how brilliant and customer service-oriented you are? Sorry, don't believe it. I didn't get much further than this sequence before I gave up.
Donna Tartt's The Secret History:
I started this book after multiple friends told me that I had to read it, and I have no idea what the hype is all about. The writing isn't particularly engaging, and the storyline is neither believable nor compelling. The main character is a young man who goes off to an east coast college to get away from his awful family, and he becomes absolutely determined to get into this Greek class, despite the fact that the professor is really strange and doesn't want to let him in. The main character follows the extremely insular clique of Greek students around, and they seem unpleasant and totally unbelievable (although my husband tells me that I might have found them more believable if I had gone to Bennington). Eventually, they clue him into what he needs to do to get into the class, and he says the magic words to the professor. When he does get in the class, things get really dull, and he is more and more cut off from anything going on in the rest of the school. As time passes, the students in the Greek class get weirder and weirder, and then it seems that someone dies in the middle of some sort of Bachanalian rite...and then I stopped reading because I really didn't care.
Topic-wise, I should have loved this novel. I feel all sorts of ambivalence toward Facebook, and I can imagine really enjoying a conspiracy-theory book about corporate data-mining. However, this one left me completely cold for many reasons, not least of which that the main character is a non-entity.
Even more than that, I found certain elements totally unbelievable. Obviously, something this dystopic is going to have unrealistic elements, but they have to be somewhat credible. It felt like Eggers was slipping up on details that should be easy. For example, the online customer service help desk that the main character works at isn't remotely like a customer service desk anywhere. In what world does a list of FAQ's really answer all the scenarios that your customers ask about? In the tech world? Really? Then, in what world are ALL your customers that satisfied, no matter how brilliant and customer service-oriented you are? Sorry, don't believe it. I didn't get much further than this sequence before I gave up.
Donna Tartt's The Secret History:
I started this book after multiple friends told me that I had to read it, and I have no idea what the hype is all about. The writing isn't particularly engaging, and the storyline is neither believable nor compelling. The main character is a young man who goes off to an east coast college to get away from his awful family, and he becomes absolutely determined to get into this Greek class, despite the fact that the professor is really strange and doesn't want to let him in. The main character follows the extremely insular clique of Greek students around, and they seem unpleasant and totally unbelievable (although my husband tells me that I might have found them more believable if I had gone to Bennington). Eventually, they clue him into what he needs to do to get into the class, and he says the magic words to the professor. When he does get in the class, things get really dull, and he is more and more cut off from anything going on in the rest of the school. As time passes, the students in the Greek class get weirder and weirder, and then it seems that someone dies in the middle of some sort of Bachanalian rite...and then I stopped reading because I really didn't care.
This novel seemed promising when I read the review, but I very quickly tired of what felt like a caricature of southern life. It didn't seem like Wilton was interested in creating characters so much as types who would behave in stereotypically predictable ways. When the frat boys were about to rape a farm animal, I gave up.
There are a few others that I've given up on in the last few months, but this is a representative sample. Reading this over, I see that characterization is important to me, as well as a realistic plot. It's not that I don't like fantasy, but I don't want to spend the whole novel thinking "who does that?"
What are some books that you've given up on?
There are a few others that I've given up on in the last few months, but this is a representative sample. Reading this over, I see that characterization is important to me, as well as a realistic plot. It's not that I don't like fantasy, but I don't want to spend the whole novel thinking "who does that?"
What are some books that you've given up on?
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