Is there anyone else on here who didn't love The Book Thief?

[TunipTheVegedude]

I was told to persevere with it and I'm now 63% through and it's annoying me more than ever.
I'm finding it pretentious and dull and while some of the characters are fine, the girl is totally unconvincing - she reads like someone has sat down and decided on some interesting characteristics to give her ('I know! I'll make her good at fighting and football!') rather than the character growing naturally.
Is it going to get better in the last 37%?

ha!

The thing is, artistic intent, is by its nature, a narcisissitic enterprise. The good writer can allow a book to grow from this er, pile of shite, and create a work which is independent of the author's desire. it can stand alone.

Of course there are also works of fiction which play very cleverly with the notion of author and intent. Perec, for instance, was fascinating because he wanted to banish the authorial voice.

cote, if you want to engage with someone who has read it, there are plenty of us here. Why bother having a tiff with BOF?

I agree with you, Madame, although have to say that I didn't see that much cleverness in it.

Hully's assessment is pretty spot on, too.

If I don't get a book or dislike it,I don't persist
Life too short to read a book you dislike

I am, in so far as I am not actually a professor of anything, but was sending up the pomposity of the intellectual credential-flashing going on.

You are right though that I cba. It's bloody hot, and I read the book years ago and can barely remember it. I must dig it out though- it was a signed first edition that I got when I worked in a bookshop, so it might be worth a few bob now. That is if mumsnetters don't succeed in making it a byword for drivel .

I meant the "cleverness" of the author, rather than the book. sorry to be unclear about that..which of course was not clever because it showed.

don't you think my intellectual credentials are pretty, though, BOF?

Madame - BOF has actually read it. She says if we didn't like it, it must have gone over our heads. I would just like to hear what it is that we have missed, but she does not want to tell us.

LRD, on the other hand, has not read it. That quote was from LRD's post.

The story tried to shoe horn too many events from WW2 into it, as if there was a tick list of incidents that had to be mentioned: no analysis, no real background, then rush on to the next thing.

Also Death was such a mystical, child like character, that I dreaded having to read those overly simplistic, yet florid segments.

I've read a lot of fiction over the years and there didn't seem to be anything fresh in there; also I read Austerlitz by W G Sebald around the same time and was blown away by that.

I have an English Literature degree, but that doesn't make me snobby about books! I've read tons of Mills and Boon, Jilly Cooper, M C Beaton, thrillers etc.

You see SM's post is interesting, because she has forsaken her customary three line style and gone for a two line "gavel'-like brevity.

Oh, yes, she's quite correct.

I was talking about why I was put off.

It is certainly true that, if I were a student, I'd conscientiously force myself to read every word, instead of sitting in Waterstones' cafe reading through. But I started reading and this is why I gave up. I thought that was a fair response to the OP.

Did I misunderstand?

cote, Really I do think BOF was teasing.

LRD, seems pretty spot on to me. If it was so turgid you gave up, there is an opinion in itself.

When I was reading the slush piles at various places I knew within a couple of pages whether it was worth reading further.

"I read the book years ago and can barely remember it"

And that would be why you said it must have gone over our heads, along with "you either get it or you don't. ". Because you don't even remember it.

Maybe read it again and then we can have a conversation about it and see what has gone over whose head.

Thanks madame.

Is it fair to say YA novels often have to hook readers more quickly? I did wonder about that bit as I know I will sometimes try to trawl through a duller introduction for a book that's just physically a bit longer.

Cote-I was joking...

cote, you are now impeding our narrative flow....

I feel the YA is a red herring. Good writing, (in whatever genre) will hook you within paragraphs, I find.

greenhill - I agree with you, especially re your first two paragraphs.

Cote - the Prof Bof was being ironic. You do know that?

Sorry, should I have mentioned that I have won the Nobel Prize for Literature, The Booker (twice), The Orange in its inaugural year, and a Blue Peter Badge for writing a good story.

Fair enough, madame, very likely I'm overly keen to excuse bad writing when it's won awards. I think we all do it.

It's the Blue Peter badge that makes it.

mintyy that's even better than Hilary Mantel and she always divides opinion...either her stuff is too long or people are hanging on her every word

didn't liike the book thief. Gave up at about 75% of the way through (same as you now). Don't feel bad about it at all even though I nEVER stop reading books. This was the one that proved me wrong.