What's good about these books?

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Following on from the overrated books thread, I realised there are some books that I really want to like, but can't help thinking they are a bit shite really. Am I being fick? If you like them please help me see the light.

Explanations of why I am spectacularly missing the point, or contributions of other seemingly shite books welcome.

So...

Villette - seems to be about a woman dripping around in France, pointlessly.

Metamorphosis - man turns into a beetle and gets pissed off then dies.

What am I missing?

Oh yes - A Prayer for Owen Meany. Couldn't finish it, was bored stiff. Why is it supposed to be so good?

Agree with those three. Villette interesting because of Unreliable Narrator and self-hatred of Charlotte Bronte at that point in her life etc etc etc, but other than that, dire. That awful Belgian man.

Which awful beglian man?

The fussy little Beglian, M Paul (or was he French? In real life he was Belgian and let poor Charlotte down sumfink chronic)

I enjoyed Villette until the ending which enfuriated me. Not going to say why as I don't like spoilers but ARGGGHHH why did CB do that? I can't remember now why I liked the book though! Can't envisage re-reading (unlike Jane Eyre, which unless I missed it was one of the few 'classics' which notably escaped the overrated list)

Oh I see ! I've never read Villette.

Jane Eyre is excellent.

JE is top.

You're not supposed to be agreeing with me, you're supposed to be telling me I'm a philistine and why. Damn yer eyes.

Quite like Jane Eyre but loathed Wide Sargasson Sea.

I think you're being unfair on M Paul - don't remember him as 'fussy', think you're conflating him with Hercule Poirot as the only other Belgian in fiction

Hercule Poirot. Bless him!

Elephants, you haven't yet listed anything I actually liked (or read) and would fight for

He was ridiculous - he took her to meet that weird woman and fussed all over the place

Sargasso FFS.

Thankyou, Hully.

So Birdsong: I quite liked it, but seemed to be two books put together. One good one about war. And one rubbish one about oral sex with French women.

Oh come on someone else must have books they just don't "get"

I didn't get MiddleMarch - maybe I tried it too young. Planning to re-read next year when I'm 50.

Oooh now you're talking, I loved Middlemarch, although it was a bit slow to get in to. So reasons you should like it:

1. really good exploration of the frustrations of being a smart/ambitious woman in the 19th century, having to realise your ambitions through marrying a man who shared them.

2. believable well rounded characters especially Fred Vincy and Mary Garth and her parents

3. a few loathsome characters to keep you going. Never have I shouted "noooo!" so loudly at a book as when Dorothea married that dreary old twat Casaubon.

Er, that's it :)

Well can someone tell me what's so good about Frankenstein.

Man makes a creature who thinks on him as a Father. Decides he finds it revolting and rejects it heartlessly. Spends the next 500 pages speechless with outrage, bewilderment and betrayal that the creature is rather upset at all this and reacting angrily.

Or how about Ulysses? What the fuck?

Thomas Hardy's The Woodlanders, anyone? Nothing happens. Although I think someone might have had her hair cut.

at BalloonSlayer "someone might have had her hair cut". Brilliant.

Can't stand Villette or really any of the Brontes' work except JE.

Ulysses; self-indulgent claptrap, but some people rate it and I hope one of them will come on here and tell me why it's so great.

Metamorphosis was an interesting allegory about individual's powerlessness within the state. Hope someone else will expound on that.

Reasons to like Wuthering Heights

1. Emily Bronte KNOWS the characters are horrible, but wants to show that horrible people are MADE that way by cruelty

1. Passion and love on that scale are always going to amke you a bit abnormal.

1. Unreliable narrators... Double plots... ghosts... graves... undying love

1. The landscape.

and besides some people who didn't like it sounded just like the Victorian clergy who dissed it for being immoral.

Thanks Jux. Was it? My teacher was a massive perve who told us it was all about sex.

Mm, yes - Life of Pi? Have only read a bit but I saw the play based on it and ...what? animals on a raft? is there a point?

I like The Woodlanders, even thought the female protagonist is incredibly irritating.

Also quite like Frankenstein, although it goes on a bit too long.

Metamorphosis - man turns into a giant beetle, what's not to like?

There's a lot of awful Russian classics out there - people weeping and wailing and examining the nature of existence because they've put the wrong hat on.

Well, elephants, it could easily have been about sex too. No idea Hope an english lit lecturer will come on and tell us.

Wuthering Heights: I always read it as a satire of the dark side of overblown romance. Showing that people who are dark and brooding and romantic are actually just plain nasty.

at "people weeping and wailing and examining the nature of existence because they've put the wrong hat on."

Lots of head/hair anxiety behind classic lit it seems.