Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Coming off a literary high - please help

438 replies

CoteDAzur · 07/04/2012 09:40

I just read Cloud Atlas and This Thing Of Darkness in quick succession, both epic, fantastic books of great scope and vision.

Now I don't now what to do with myself. Read another book, but what? What can I read now that won't be a huge disappointment after these two wonderful books that I have just finished?

OP posts:
Original poster
CoteDAzur · 11/04/2012 12:16

For the record, Ian McEwan is a brilliant author and if you don't appreciate his books in general, that is hardly his fault. What sets him apart is not the plot but the incredibly detailed and brutally honest observations of the characters' inner worlds - even in Saturday, an obviously less ambitious book than Atonement.

I hope this thread won't now descend into "Ooh, which other widely acclaimed authors do we not get hate now?"

OP posts:
Original poster
CoteDAzur · 11/04/2012 12:04

The picture on the cover is an actual oil painting of the Beagle from 1830s, iirc.

OP posts:
londonlottie · 11/04/2012 08:04

Finding This Thing Of Darkness delectable; cannot WAIT to get further into it. Not sure I would have gone for it based on the cover alone; makes it look far too dry. As it is it currently feels like a book that has somehow always been written...

Jajas · 10/04/2012 23:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Henwelly · 10/04/2012 23:25

Never heard of her Grin!

Jajas · 10/04/2012 23:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Henwelly · 10/04/2012 23:20

suspects I may have walked into the wrong literary thread.

pollywollydoodle · 10/04/2012 22:56

human traces was dollops of undigested research imo...engleby was the digested version and better...green dolphin street was twaddle

pollywollydoodle · 10/04/2012 22:50

human traces was dollops of undigested research imo...engleby was the digested version and better...green dolphin street was twaddle

Jajas · 10/04/2012 22:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 10/04/2012 22:43

Quite liked 'Engleby' though I think it was yet another book with a disappointing ending iirc. Toiled through about 250 pages of, 'Human traces' before giving up in disgust. Failed with, 'Birdsong.' Probably won't bother with another.

Just remembered, 'The English Patient' - how can such a beautifully written book have so very little ultimately to say?

Jajas · 10/04/2012 22:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

theressomethingaboutmarie · 10/04/2012 21:31

I loved A Week In December, thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd and think that Helen Dunmore's The Siege.

retiredgoth2 · 10/04/2012 21:22

Seb Faulks.

A Week In December?

See You Next Tuesday.

On Green Dolphin Street, perhaps...

retiredgoth2 · 10/04/2012 21:19

Along with the petroleum-soaked Saturdays, we could fashion fashion copies of The Child In Time into spittoons..

Oh. We may run out of copies.

It's ok.

I'm sure Waterstone's (the apostrophe remains in Goth Towers) could furnish us with some volumes by Rushdie and Howard Jacobsen...

BulletProofMum · 10/04/2012 21:13

I'll join you too. I've read most of them as there's always so much hype. I find them all so dull though, always waiting for something to happen

OrganicRawChocolate · 10/04/2012 21:09

I read The Mosquito Coast recently and thought it was excellent

Jajas · 10/04/2012 21:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 10/04/2012 21:00

Hurray for the IM haters club! :)

NomenOmen · 10/04/2012 20:51
Grin

X-post.

NomenOmen · 10/04/2012 20:50

Agree re: WNTTAK. I felt emotionally manipulated by it, and not in a good way. The 'twist' certainly had a visceral impact and was delivered quite skilfully, I thought, though its effect was largely because of the daughter. But it felt a bit, I don't know exactly, easy, if that makes sense. Like some kind of tragedy bingo or top-trumps. It had the same artificial feel to it as Sophie's Choice, IMO, which is another book which, while quite powerful in some ways, feels unpleasantly exploitative and unreal. Like the superficial fantasies of someone not quite up to the task.

Oh, and, thank god. I totally agree about MacEwan. It made me want to cry that everyone thought Atonement was such a good book.

Jajas · 10/04/2012 20:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Jajas · 10/04/2012 20:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

retiredgoth2 · 10/04/2012 20:42

At last Remus

We agree.

Let's chase Ian McEwan out of town. With pitchforks, and faggots made of petrol soaked copies of 'Saturday'...

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 10/04/2012 20:40

I thought it was boring and badly written and I didn't care about anybody. For me, I have to have at least one character I'm interested in (even if it's a serial killer like The talented Mr Ripley or whomever!) but I had no interest in Kevin and co at all. I found her a 'cold' writer, if that makes sense and therefore I couldn't find anything in the novel to attach myself to, as it were. I suspect this was her intention but, for me, it failed. I felt the same about the script of 'Shallow Grave' and feel the same about a lot of the rubbish that Ian McEwan (sp?) trots out.

Swipe left for the next trending thread