Page 13 | post your unpopular literature opinions?

MrShannon385 · 2023-10-25T23:28:17+00:00

Curly was the best character in mice an men

Leafmealone1 · 26/10/2023 11:46

A Little Life is a terrible book in every way and only loved by emo wannabes who think it's high brow and that liking it makes them look smart.

KStockHERO · 26/10/2023 11:43

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 26/10/2023 11:42

Remains of the Day is wonderful and heartbreaking.

Richard Osman’s novels are entertaining with great characters.

Lord of the Flies is one of the most beautifully written novels there is and understands humanity perfectly.

The Handmaid’s Tale is extraordinary.

Loved 'Handmaid's Tale' but everything else by Attwood is shit with a capital S H I T.

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 26/10/2023 11:42

Remains of the Day is wonderful and heartbreaking.

Richard Osman’s novels are entertaining with great characters.

Lord of the Flies is one of the most beautifully written novels there is and understands humanity perfectly.

The Handmaid’s Tale is extraordinary.

AmazingSnakeHead · 26/10/2023 11:41

My most controversial literature opinion is that Twilight is a good book. Sorry, folk.

Also Tom Bombadil is an excellent charater and that whole sequence rules.

Catscatscatscatscatscats · 26/10/2023 11:37

Maireas · 26/10/2023 11:27

Too true, see Richard Osman.
Really lovely man, terrible books, imo.

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Sadly agree with Richard osman

Vriddle · 26/10/2023 11:36

KStockHERO · 26/10/2023 11:30

Sorry, my fourth post on this thread.... I have so many unpopular literature opinions 😅

I don't (generally) read books by men because I find them comparatively poorly-written, gratuitous and there's always always low-level sexism baked in there somewhere.
I make exceptions for Benjamin Myers and Kazuo Ishiguro (sorry, I loved Remains of the Day)

Kazuo. ❤

Vriddle · 26/10/2023 11:35

barbarahunter · 26/10/2023 08:22

I was really surprised how derivative and badly written Harry Potter is.

Yeah. I found Book 1 unreadable and never ventured further.

I love JK Rowling with a fierceness... but I can't read the books.

Brefugee · 26/10/2023 11:30

StellaOlivetti · 26/10/2023 11:13

I agree about Jilly Cooper’s descriptions of the countryside. They are beautiful.

I did like Birdsong, but OMG the depiction of the female characters. The bit where Elizabeth is getting ready to go out, including where “she checked her appearance in a mirror” left me seething.

@Hollyhead thank you, on behalf of children’s authors everywhere. I’m guessing they are ghostwritten, but that doesn’t excuse their awfulness.

IMO if you want to read Birdsong, don't bother. Read All Quiet On The Western Front and Madame Bovary both at the same time. (turn and turn about)

Same story, much better books.

KStockHERO · 26/10/2023 11:30

Sorry, my fourth post on this thread.... I have so many unpopular literature opinions 😅

I don't (generally) read books by men because I find them comparatively poorly-written, gratuitous and there's always always low-level sexism baked in there somewhere.
I make exceptions for Benjamin Myers and Kazuo Ishiguro (sorry, I loved Remains of the Day)

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 26/10/2023 11:29

GalileoHumpkins · 26/10/2023 10:30

Colleen Hoover is the greatest writer to ever live.

😂

Maireas · 26/10/2023 11:27

Catscatscatscatscatscats · 26/10/2023 11:05

Too many celebs "write" fiction. Which for the most part is bloody awful..inc Dawn French and ruth Jones. This especially true of children's books at the moment

Too true, see Richard Osman.
Really lovely man, terrible books, imo.

KStockHERO · 26/10/2023 11:26

All non-rhyming and high-brow poetry is shit.

It's basically the kernel of an idea for a novel that the writer didn't have the time, energy or (most likely) talent to actually turn into a novel so just wrote a few lines and then gave up.

Give me a good limerick any day.
There once was a man called Rick.....

Maireas · 26/10/2023 11:26

Exactly right, @StrangePaintName .
They all had a rich and vivid inner life, and probably maladaptive daydreaming.
I think WH is a great book, but it's not at all straightforward.

MrsFrisbyMouse · 26/10/2023 11:25

That people read literary fiction because it makes them feel clever - but most lit fic is just big word salad.

That TV/Film writing is lesser form of art than "real" books - I don't think people are truly aware of the skill in writing for the screen - let alone the creative skill that goes into filming a production (from writing, to sets, to costumes, etc.)

MikeRafone · 26/10/2023 11:24

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 26/10/2023 08:33

Shakespeare is meant to be watched, as Chaucer is meant to be listened to - not read in class.

Thomas Wyatt's poems are incomprehensible. They are coded messages about love affairs, court intrigues and political incidents and so context dependent as to be meaningless 400+ years later.

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that makes sense then, making a few of us at a time act it out in class wasn't just for the humour and why we enjoyed it so much

TotalOverhaul · 26/10/2023 11:22

MissLucyEyelesbarrow · 26/10/2023 08:14

I don't believe in any of McEwan's characters, particularly the women. See also Sebastian Faulks.

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And Patrick Gale. Sweet as he appears to be irl, he is so terrified of female sexuality all his female characters are frigid or nymphomaniacs. None have a healthy, positive, robust attitude to desire and sex.

RedRadishes · 26/10/2023 11:18

The often praised (but only on MN!) Cazalet Chronicle books are absolutely crap!

StrangePaintName · 26/10/2023 11:17

Maireas · 26/10/2023 10:12

I think if you're lovestruck and emotional, you won't get Wuthering Heights at all.
It's not a romance.

Yes. People grousing about it not being romantic have just picked up a common misperception the novel isn’t to blame for. EB never intended it as a romance. I imagine she’d think people were on glue. It’s a locally-set take on her own roleplay universe that she had with Anne where they wrote stories about the characters, and poems from their pov. She just set it in Yorkshire rather than Gondal, her imaginary world, which is all feuds, deathbed curses, doomed love affairs between Gothic villains and imperious queens, battles, imprisonment etc.

WitcheryDivine · 26/10/2023 11:15

Oh Beloved is brilliant. But I think studying it actually helped as I doubt I’d have got far enough into it to enjoy it otherwise.

StellaOlivetti · 26/10/2023 11:13

I agree about Jilly Cooper’s descriptions of the countryside. They are beautiful.

I did like Birdsong, but OMG the depiction of the female characters. The bit where Elizabeth is getting ready to go out, including where “she checked her appearance in a mirror” left me seething.

@Hollyhead thank you, on behalf of children’s authors everywhere. I’m guessing they are ghostwritten, but that doesn’t excuse their awfulness.

KStockHERO · 26/10/2023 11:11

honeylulu · 26/10/2023 11:00

I agree about Zadie Smith. I did not enjoy her books at all (tried one more after White Teeth - should not have bothered). Meandering, muddled and boring. She had obviously done a lot of historical/cultural research and I became convinced that that, and her youth, has resulted in the awards overlooking the crap story and writing. Or maybe I'm just thick and didn't get it.

I was also really disappointed with Toni Morrison. I was really looking forward to reading Beloved as it sounded like just my sort of thing. But I couldn't make head nor tail of it.

My favourite Jane Austen character is Fanny Price. No one agrees with me on that. Usual consensus is that she is quiet and boring. I thought it was great to have a quiet heroine for a change!

THANK YOU for saying this about Beloved. I kept seeing it on lists like "Top books of all time" and "Books you have to read before you die".

So I bought it and had really high expectations. I didn't have a fucking clue what it was about or what was happening. I couldn't decipher any kind of narrative or character development. It was just words on a page. I might as well have been reading a phone book.

I've been reluctant to buy any more TM books because of this.

magimedi · 26/10/2023 11:08

I have a lovely fridge magnet with a picture of Dickens on it & a quote from Dickens:

"There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best part".

Sums him up for me!

KStockHERO · 26/10/2023 11:07

JK Rowling is a terrible writer of adults books.
Two dimensional, 'perfect example' type characters, predictable story-lines, manufactured drama.

I LOVE the bones of her as a person but she can't write adult books for shit.

Crinklycut · 26/10/2023 11:05

I think Milton is a bit light-weight.

Catscatscatscatscatscats · 26/10/2023 11:05

Too many celebs "write" fiction. Which for the most part is bloody awful..inc Dawn French and ruth Jones. This especially true of children's books at the moment