Thursday 28 August 2014

Enmity

This week's Booking Through Thursday is:

Any books or authors you hate? Why? Is it the writing? The stories? The author’s personality? And—would you read their work anyway?

There are a few, I have to admit. The first and most obvious would have to be Stephenie Meyer, and the total vapidity and vanity of her heroines and her frustrating lack of any respect for her readers' common sense (or hopes for healthy, non-abusive relationships) annoys me very much. However, I read the entire Twilight series because it was so bad it was funny at times, and I read The Host because it actually sounded like an interesting concept. It did turn out to be an interesting concept, but so mangled into an abusive teen romance that it frustrated me more than Twilight had.

Another pet hate of mine is D H Lawrence. I've read a few of his, most notably Lady Chatterley's Lover, as well as Women in Love and Sons and Lovers. Quite apart from his habit of putting the word 'love' into almost every title, I found his view of women insulting and irritating. This is made worse by the fact that he was praised highly by many after his death for his portrayal of 'strong, independent and complex' women - I found his women indecisive, sentimental and in need of a man to fulfill them, which for me is the very opposite of the above description.

I had to read a lot of Virginia Woolf during my undergraduate degree, and I hated every one of her novels. I understand that she was the forerunner of the modernist movement, cutting edge techniques, etc etc, and that's great. However, my idea of a good story definitely does not consist of following a middle-aged housewife around for a day, or observing a family repeatedly failing to row out to a lighthouse near their holiday home. I appreciate that the techniques she used were groundbreaking, innovative, and so on, but her style really isn't my thing.

Phew. I'm actually a little bit angry now. Are there any authors that you can't stand? Leave a comment and tell me why!

1 comment:

Holly (2 Kids and Tired) said...

You pretty much nailed it. Funny how there are so many classic novelists I really don't care for and I have an English degree! Edith Wharton is one. And Stephenie Meyer is such a mixed bag. Twilight had its compelling moments and I much preferred vampire Bella over the human version, but the series needed a really good editor and could have been condensed into two potentially better books. I won't read anything by Nicholas Sparks or Jodi Picoult.

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