Which authors' success is a complete mystery to you?

[emkana]

Tony Parsons

Jodi Picoult

jack kerouac

I like Iain Banks - Crow Road and Wasp Factory are fab...

Martin Amis - pretentious git.

Will Self.

I fins Iain M bank's success quite a mystery actually. have never read any of his initial-less works.

Ian Banks - great!!

Unquietdad..too circumspect. Falsely..he lays trails as to his identity..and then fogs them...cheap.

I read a Celia Ahern, it wasnt bad. She will be a good writer in about 20 years time when she has had some life experiences, I thought.

you are all just jealous!

this is great. I dont have a wade though an Ian McEwan now, because Mumsnet says hes crap, so he must be.

you mean "Wilf-so-up-my-self-so-far-I-can-see-nothing-else-but-my-own-shit. Self

no, some Ian McEwan is good...

David Copperfield is one of the finest novels in the English language.
And Out of Africa is one of the most lyrical books.
Pan I grant you Middlemarch is perfectly written but it does not make sense.

pan !

But all Iain Banks' male characters talk in exactly the same way (like him) and his female characters are all ludicrous.

(Just finished Steep Approach to Garbadale).

I have quite a lot of time for Will Self though. Although he is, as Vic Reeves used to say on Shooting Stars, "very very wordy"

Yes, have read Crow Road, s'alright better than the Bronte's

I loove Ian McEwan. Not crap. But then I also like some of the stuff by Julian Barnes. Never tried Amis...

I also like Will Self. He is very funny!

barb - I know, I think, what you mean..there ARE internal tensions which leaves the modern reader with a lots of questions..but.. the writing, on EVERY page, the ideas, the notions..are brilliant!!

I read Andrea Ashworth's book many years ago and enjoyed it.

It may just be me, but I don't tend to enjoy American fiction, whether it's highbrow or lowbrow. I always seem to find that there's too much descriptive stuff which then annoys and distracts me, because I think the author is padding.

Salman Rushdie. The most boring author ever?

Henry James. I need at least one full stop per page.

Hemingway. How much do we really want to know about shooting and fishing?

The Artemis Fowl author. Struggled through about four pages, and decided life was too short.

Tony Parsons. Does. Not. Give. Me. A. Lump. In. My. Throat (unless you count choking on all the sentimentality).

The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy author. I was so fed up with the self-obsessed main character by page 2 that I gave the book (back) to the charity shop.

Will Self (though not sure whether it's him or his writing that's more annoying).

on the other hand..

I am surprised at the enduring popularity of Marge Piercey and Margaret Atwood.

I cut my "feminist teeth" on these women 20 years ago..but they prove to be eternal.

Margeret Atwood is fantastic. never mind the politics, just read the books.

mommalove, Ive picked up an Ian McEwan in the bookshop several times, but it has never managed to exert the magical influence that would persuade me to part with my money. I have dipped into the books, but they just dont appeal enough.

Obviously crap:

Lisa Jewell
Tony Parsons

Less obviously crap but still quite crap:

Ian McEwan (Atonement just a massive rip-off of The Go-Between; other recent books just boring - earlier stuff like Black Dogs much better)

Lloyd Jones (wrote Mister Pip which was on the Booker shortlist and was actually really, really badly written)

Obviously crap to me but am prepared to defer to more educated readers:

Anthony Powell (writer of the longest most unwieldy sentences in English)