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Original poster

Why is it so hard to read a book when you dislike the main character?

110 replies

Swedes2Turnips1 · 09/12/2007 18:28

In spite of really lovely writing I am struggling. Any advice?

OP posts:
ShinyHappyStarOfBethlehem · 10/12/2007 21:56

Excuse me but is UQD an author??!! (Or does he just lend out books he owns??) Re Elasticwoman's comment.. second on thread..

Kathyate6mincepies · 10/12/2007 21:53

LOL!!!

Elasticwoman · 10/12/2007 21:52

Yes, but she didn't know it would get on the A level syllabus. And she was writing at a time when The Mystery of Udolpho was the sort of thing people wanted to read.

Kathyate6mincepies · 10/12/2007 21:47

Didn't Jane Austen describe her as a character 'whom no-one but myself' will like?

Elasticwoman · 10/12/2007 21:45

Oh no, I like Emma. She's so patient with her ridiculous father, and really, wouldn't any of us have wanted to tease Miss Bates?
I hope that's the Emma you meant, btw.

hatwoman · 10/12/2007 21:37

I think with Emma too - you're meant to find her annoying

hatwoman · 10/12/2007 21:37

I see Bonaventura beat me to it with the Martin Amis reference. I do think it's harder to write a (good) book about someone most people find it difficult to relate to. Though I suspect I would find it difficult to relate to Martin Amis

hatwoman · 10/12/2007 21:34

some of my favourite books are about characters I positively detest. The question is whether you're meant to like them or not. If you're meant to like them and you don;t then the book hasn't done its thing (for me - Time Traveller's Wife - thought the characters were boring) however books where you're meant to dislike the lead character(s) require, imho, a particular talent - and if they succeed in being good, they are really good - The Bonfire of the Vanities and most of Martin Amis' stuff.

Kathyate6mincepies · 10/12/2007 21:30
Grin
Elasticwoman · 10/12/2007 21:29

(I think Kathy is a 6 maniac)

Original poster
Swedes2Turnips1 · 10/12/2007 20:46

OOh, you see, I like Martin Amis.

OP posts:
Kathyate6mincepies · 10/12/2007 15:05

Flashman is so well written that you're kind of on his side even though you deplore his actions.

I had the same trouble with Midnight's Children - left me cold.

Bonaventura · 10/12/2007 15:03

You wouldn't like Martin Amis, then. In his novels, all his characters are unlikeable. I still read them, though. I don't mind not liking characters. Seeing them come unstuck is part of the fun.

Original poster
Swedes2Turnips1 · 10/12/2007 14:53

I have read books before with flawed characters but beneath their flaws (perhaps even because of their flaws) there is some humanity. However this character, Vladim, is wholly unlikeable with no saving graces whatsoever. So horrible that I can't be interested in him.

OP posts:
Elasticwoman · 10/12/2007 10:05

Wasn't Room At The Top about an anti-hero? Quite readable though. And all those books about Flashman by MacDonald Fraser - the main character is a completely despicable bully. I haven't read any but I believe they are v popular.

Sidge · 09/12/2007 20:25

That's why I hated the Shopaholic books (apart from the fact they are total shite).

The main character needed a good slap round the chops. Awful woman.

Original poster
Swedes2Turnips1 · 09/12/2007 20:23

It's called Novel With Cocaine.

OP posts:
foxinsocks · 09/12/2007 19:31

I don't know. I'm sure I can find it somewhere. It was a recent one (last few years).

DeePancrisPaneven · 09/12/2007 19:29

A fine case!! Go through the novel and with a big thick marker pen, just cross through anything Emma says or is mentioned of. INfact, the book may benefit from this!!

DingDongJeremyOnVile · 09/12/2007 19:28

See, it's that brand of gritty determination that puts the Great in Great Britain.

Heated · 09/12/2007 19:27

Fanny in Mansfield Park isn't so bad, she's just a "still point in a turning world".

I love Austen, but I just want to smack Emma.

DeePancrisPaneven · 09/12/2007 19:26

No, just edit out all of the conversations/actions/any plot line that involves the main character..as if they weren't there sort of thing. Really easy.

The narrative may appear a little disjointed, but this is a small price to pay, surely.

FlamesparodyOfAChristmasName · 09/12/2007 19:25

I hate it when that happens. It is normally when it is a book you really fancied too and then you feel all cheated.

MerryAnnSinglemas · 09/12/2007 19:25

which Iain Banks was that ?

foxinsocks · 09/12/2007 19:23

I think you have to give up. There was one character in one of Iain Banks' books that I couldn't get along with so I had to stop reading. Was annoying.

I am having a bad reading phase at the moment too. What are you reading?

I went and stood in a book shops for ages yesterday and couldn't find one book I wanted to take home and read gah.