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

[Swedes2Turnips1]

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

McEwan's Amsterdam as well

Oh yes, Enduring love, yawn.

however I am not bored by Robbie in Atonement, but that's because I've been lusting after James McAvoy in the film and haven't read the book.

Preferred McEwan's early short stories, where as well as being unlikeable the characters were positively unnerving, frightening, shocking.

Oh, and one story is about a child murderer. Of course you dislike this character, but somehow you care for him and want things to work out well for him.

(And what about Hannibal Lecter. Those books are actually quite good, and I found myself championing him all the way!)

I always thought Jane Eyre was an unrelenting sap. In fact all the Bronte sisters' books leave me cold, especially Wuthering Heights.

She's worse than a sap. I hate her. She is weak and vindictive and captures a strong man so that, by possessing his strength, she gets some sort of fantasy revenge against all those who have wronged her. And to top it all, she succeeds (through the machinations of the author) in emasculating her saviour by blinding him.

Thats what Nietzsche says about Christianity: the weak gain revenge on the strong by allying themselves with god -- and then, despising strength, they destroy god by crucifiction.

Jane Eyre is nasty.

Another person I could never warm to is Irene in the Forsyte Saga. I found her very cool and it was difficult to care. She made the book hard going for me.

shiny - I'm not allowed to say! Some people here think I already mention it too much, allegedly... (That's despite 99% of people not having a clue.)

elastic - I love the way you assume from the title it's one of mine! It could well apply to the last one!

uqd i am desperate to know

zippi - if you are asking "if" then yes.
if you are asking who then kathy knows. And Pruni. And a few others.

oh not if even i kno that..whom obvs and why hav u told sum pple

this is such an interesting thread. I read a light novel recently where I loathed all the characters, even though the book itself was well written. (Notting Hell, by Rachel Johnson)

I wont read it again, and I wont buy another book by her, but not liking the characters isnt a reason on its own to stop reading the book
I will stop reading a book if the plot takes a turn that I think is ludicrously unlikely, or if the author shows their blatant lack of scientific understanding, or if the prose is just too boring.

confession - I have never read jane eyre I will read it with interest now...

or who even

yes the narrator in saturday is a twat

i liked bedroom secrets of master chefs tho although the main character was nox

oh leave him alone zippi! (but if you prise the secret from him, then contact me pleaaaase)

I didn't like that woman in "I Don't Know How..." either. She wasn't convincing as a high-flyer - I think the author had just "projected" her journalistic lifestyle on to her.

The Rachel Johnson novel DW has read - I was put off it by a) the cover, b) the blurb, and c) her.

zippi - I didn't tell, they guessed.

i can't he's a man lol

how late it was how late..he is a lovely chap

i enjoyed that book, paddy doyle kinda liked him

UQD did you see the thread about 'I don't know how...'? Interestingly at least one City person came to exactly that conclusion - she wasn't convincing as a someone who had done that well in the City because she was too wimpy to assert herself at home and you would have to basically not be wimpy to succeed in the City.

Yep, can't get beyond the first few chpt of Enduring Love - really dislike the character.

Not keen on Billy Prior in Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy either.

Richardson's Pamela.

liking or disliking characters doesn't put me off at all....being indifferent to them does

UQD - I didn't assume; it was a random guess.
Perhaps even a little tease. I have every intention of reading your latest but it's a bit expensive: £10.99 for paperback fiction? What is the world coming to? I shall put it on my Christmas list and report back (perhaps on an Amazon customer review).

Fanny Price passive and simpering? You have SO missed the point about her, Fennel. Fanny is quiet and unassuming, but then has the strength of character to resist the most enormous pressure to marry some one who seems outwardly desirable, but whom she sees for what he is. She is her own person, not going along with what every one else expects, even though she is in the most socially disadvantaged position in her circle.

I didn't dislike the consultant in Saturday, but I thought the denouement a little far fetched.

elastic - but it's a "trade paperback", a halfway house between hardback and paperback. It's not an expensive paperback, it's a cheap hardback!

Yeah yeah yeah, that's what they said to me in the bookshop. I want to buy it in paperback, cheaply. They didn't have it in stock by the way. But I hope you're impressed that I looked for it.