Which authors' success is a complete mystery to you?

[emkana]

Tony Parsons

Jodi Picoult

I sort of agree about Fay Weldon, but I enjoyed her books when I first discovered them, and I'm only counting ones I think have completely wasted my time

Flossie - MK, it IS a surprise she is popular..or maybe not.....

and Casubon was purely a device, a contrast to what she desires..in sex/love/fulfillment.

Then why did she call it Middlemarch?
Why not 'Casubon: A Device' ?

Oh then I could have born it.
As it was the only person I was rooting for was the old lady who stole sugar lumps.

I have just had a session with ds re English coursework and whether it could possibly be put off for another 24hrs.
IMNVHO English literature teaching has a lot to do with this list.

redadmiral it's the lack of critical acclaim for Fay Weldon I'm bemoaning not the other way round. I think a lot of her books are brilliant - and in a proper serious way, not in the shallow proto-chick lit way you'd expect from their covers.

Damn clearly I've missed a Middlemarch fight. Is it too late to join in?

I thought Casaubon was pretty convincing, both as misplaced father figure to Dorothea, and as someone who has lived a tragically futile and unhappy life through fear of experience. No?

Message withdrawn

Fear of Flying by Erica Jong. surprisingly dreary and unerotic.

Quite dittany. I can only think that it is either because (a) she writes predominantly about women (b) because she has a wonderfully light touch which is foolishly mistaken for a lack of serious intent.

Whatever, it's wrong. I'm off to bed with a copy of the Hearts and Lives of Men.

Bill Bryson.

Why?

Message withdrawn

Iorek. At least I said I did enjoy reading her books....

I found some of them a bit samey and fomulaic. However did read the recent one about the Polish nanny which I liked.

Pratchett you either "get" or you don't. I used to get one every Christmas and I'd be guffawing in the corner - would read chunks out to my family to a stony silence.

Ben Okri and Umberto Eco... They just keep coming...

at Margaret Atwood being mentioned on here!

even bigger that NO ONE has mentioned Jilly effing Cooper!

Think you're right UD about "getting" authors/style or not.
Also I can forgive appalling writing (Jo Rowling) when the writer is a good story-teller. Big difference imo.
Suppose same goes for Pratchett.

Paul Auster. Anyone explain why he's supposed to be good?

As much as I convinced myself I would hate any book written by a man called Sebastian, I actually liked Birdsong and Charlotte Grey.

All misery-lit books are awful. My mum buys these. I think there must be a sector of British publishing who are secretly very ashamed of themselves for being involved with this tosh. It's voyeuristic, imo.

Tried to read that Chocolat book (again, recommended by my mum) and couldn't bear it. Fey, contrived nonsense.

Remember ploughing through Jackie Collins and Shirley Conran doorstop sized books when I was a teenager and thinking they were great (full of sex scenes, what more do you want when you are 14) - I have tried to read them as an adult and couldn't get past the first chapter - really, really badly written.

Didn't rate Birdsong much,I'm afraid

Some books are better (or only bearable) as Audiobooks imo. They're usually abridged and the story comes over better. You can listen with half an ear while doing something else.
E.g. I enjoyed Chocolat but tried to read it after was disppointed.
Story telling again.

Paul Auster very pretentious IMO.

I've posted elsewhere about Wuthering Height,which I'm meant to be reading for book group, but I'm close to giving up - it is of no interest to me, despite others raving about it

You can't lump the bronte sisters together. Jane Eyre is fantastic and Wuthering Heights is so dull and depressing.