What do you look for in a novel?

[suiledonn]

After reading most of the recent thread about authors whose success is a mystery to you I am wondering what do you look for in a novel? I am stunned by some of the names mentioned in the other thread and wonder what does it take to impress the modern reader. I love any story that is well written with characters that come alive. I like everything from modern American literature to classics with some murder mystery thrown in for good measure.

I read the first page, look at the type, cover an d general feel of the book - this always takes me ages, and I'm often disappointed ! But the presentation/design bits count for a lot with me...

I actually use amazon recommendations as a springing board and just give it a go!!! They've been surprisingly good so far.

Literate writing: incomplete sentences are theoretically OK, in the right circumstances, but eg anything that has incomplete sentences in italics purporting to constitute the whole of an emphatic paragraph (Dan Brown, Stephen King) goes in the bin.

Like this.

Also, I was put right off some novel recently by the writer's using "alright" instead of "all right". To quote a very literate writer, that is fingernails down the blackboard of the mind.

Triviality doesn't appeal either - those novels where you are told exactly what the heroine is wearing & where she bought it.

It's easier to say what one doesn't like than does, though - as "well written with characters that come alive" is a standard that could vary massively with the individual reader. I think that describes Trollope; but not Lisa Jewell - or any "commercial fiction" at all.

You have to feel as if you are there and as if you give a toss. The worst novels are not those which are badly written as such but those which just leave you feeling "so what?"

A lot has to do with the writer having a compelling "voice", which is one of the hardest things to "get". My students slave and sweat over it, but I keep telling them they won't get it if they are trying.

UqD has said it for me - giving a toss, is all.

No point reading it if by the end you don't care what happens to anyone.

I tend to love books which have fully realised characters who you actually MISS when you've finished the book.

The worst writing also tells you everything. It leads you in cautiously, sets up, does, then explains/justifies.

The best writing just does - characters express themselves through word and deed and the judgement is left to the reader.

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What a good question! Sometimes I go in a book shop and don't know where to start. If I haven't read a review or am not going for a tried and tested author, the cover attracts me, then the blurb then the 1st few sentences.

I think the worst kind of novel is when you 'notice' the writing IYKWIM, either because it's bad, or they are trying too hard, or worst of all if there are typos.
That puts me right off.

The length of the chapters is important to me as I probably read about the same every day and HATE to put the book down in the middle of a chapter!

Ages ago I decided the only way forward was to be completely prejudiced, otherwise I'd end up with an even bigger pile of unread novels.

I mentioned this in a previous thread and quote myself verbatim here. I boycott the following writers:

• Anyone whose biog reveals they have more than one home ("she lives in London and Hampshire").

• Anyone who "divides their time" between two places (especially in different countries).

• Anyone under 30.

• Anyone who has been excessively drooled over in the press.

• Anyone who looks too much like a smug yummy-mummy.

• Anyone who has had a recently well-publicised literary "spat".

• Any author with a "de" in their name. (Obviously your trust fund means you never had to get a day job to subsidise your writing habit, you smug bastard.)

• Most people with famous surnames. Ditto.

• Americans. A few honourable exceptions allowed, but definitely not if they are Director of the Creative Writing Program (sic) at Shitkicker College, Nebraska.

• Any "writer" whose suspiciously photogenic mugshot suggests that they weren't exactly employed for their writing abilities.

• Anything touted as this year's Hot Young Thing. If it's good, it will depress; if it's bad, it will annoy. (I made an exception for "The Beach" and was annoyed and depressed in fairly equal measures.)

• Any "novel" about a wacky London career girl and her search for a man. Written in lunch-hours by illiterate bubbleheads and commissioned by same.

• Hideous memoirs about people who were forced to go and stand in sheds in pools of their own urine and were regularly beaten by their mother and the local nuns, before emerging to a greater understanding of it all through lurve or therapy.

Also, I impose quotas: in any calendar year, no more than one Irish novel, one gay novel, one family saga spanning the generations and one "sensitive" portrayal of growing up in an exotic locale. (Idea pinched from Julian Barnes.)

Something that makes me think - some books have made me get encyclopedias (sp) down to check some random fact a character mentioned. Magic realism books tend to be quite good for this. One book I read mentioned the 'Admirable Bede' so I couldn't rest until I'd found out what/whom they were.

Gaps in the narrative so you can insert your own take on the book as UQD says.

Decently written sentences with connectives being used instead of a series of commas. American authors tend to be the worst culprits, possibly to make the text more punchy but I have seen it in British authors. If I wanted to read a list, I'd read a till receipt.

Also, as I say to the children when they want to tell me What I Dreamt Last Night - there needs to be at least one joke in it.

I find it irritating, when people put excessive commas in, like this, which make it clear, that they don't know how to use them, and you find this, even in published fiction, which makes me think that the editor, was as illiterate, as the writer, they do it where there should be a new sentence as well.

I feel a bit nauseous just reading that sentence UQD .

UQD, are, you, an, english, teacher. Then?

Lol at Unquietdad

I read 3 books a week and I usually pick books up in the shops by reading the review or reading novels by writers I already read.

However i was compiling a Christmas List so picked one people were raving about on Amazon (and it was a Richard and Judy ). I picked it out online without looking at the cover or reading the back flap (obviously) and when it duly arrived for Christmas it looked boring and I didn't pick it up til Monday (and I only picked it up cos I was avoiding cleaning the bathroom ).

I was very wrong, one of the best books I have ever read - stayed up til 5 this morning finishing it. It has opened up whole new areas of interest for me.

"Savage Garden" by Mark Mills - in case anyone wanted to know

chrissnow: No, I'm a writer who also teaches regular workshops and classes to both adults and kids.

laurie: R&J list puts me off but I'm sure there are some good ones on there.

Interesting comment on them by Susan Hill on her writing course blog here

I may give that one a go. Always up for a surprise!!
UQD - one day i will enroll on a writing workshop. I went to a writers club once but had to leave as I was the only person a) totally unpublished and b) under the age of 65!!

Susan Hill says 'there is not a bad book among them' (the richard and judy list)

Damn, now have even more books to take up my time

I always found most of Susan Hill's work to be rather depressing myself. I think it's the themes she chooses - ghosts and sad lonely people. Interesting blog though - I'll have to read that.

A lot of writing workshops do attract older people because of a) timing - daytime courses and b) the fact that some people take up writing when they retire!

Mine are done through WEA, Arts Council/Creative Partnerships and various local initiatives, as well as privately. Always had a good mix of people. I've also had people at all stages of experience, from "totally unpublished" to" had a book out a long time ago" and everything in between.

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Sometimes you have to exercise outrageous prejudice just to navigate a path through the piles of books.

There is a writer called Crysse Morrison, one of whose books looks quite interesting and whose articles I have seen in magazines. But I won't read her book because she spells her name such a daft way.

I look for some sort of indication that I will enjoy it. So if I've read other stuff by the same author, I might go for it. Or if I know the author from another sphere, eg Stephen Fry from tv. Unfortunately I've been disappointed with that criterion far more often than I've been charmed. The only thing of Stephen Fry's I like is his autobiography Moab Is My Washpot. But I still love to watch him on tv.

If some one whose judgment I respect recommends it or if I read a favourable review. Sometimes if I read an unfavourable review.

Once I've started with the novel, it has to engage me with believable and interesting characters, a witty or clever or just clear style, an unpredictable plot and original treatment of the subject chosen. Don't often get ALL those boxes ticked.

The best novels are deceptively simple and sound as if they almost wrote themselves.

BTW UQD the woman in the vg 2nd hand bookshop near me had never heard of you. I had to explain who you were and heard myself saying "a young writer - younger than me". If you have any extra copies of your novels, you could probably do worse than give them to secondhand bookshops, then if any one reads them they might think ooh I enjoyed that, and buy your next one.

Just a thought.

Haven't had a chance to get back to this thread until now. My very active 20 month old interrupts my mumsnetting and my reading quite a lot. Thanks for all the replies. It is interesting to get other people's opinions on this.
In RL the only other reader I know is my sister and although we like a lot of the same books our tastes do diverge and we rarely agree on anything other than classics these days. For example she loved Notes on a Scandal and I just did not care enough about the characters to enjoy it at all.

Elasticwoman - I love Stephen Fry but I have never read any of his work mainly because I would be disappointed if it didn't live up to my expectations. QI is one of my favourite programmes.

Unquietdad - I notice you mention Americans in your boycott list. Have you read anything by Kent Haruf or Tim Gautreaux? I seem to have a penchant for stories from small town America though so they might not be to everyones taste.