Books with unlikeable characters

[Booklover23]

Ok so not very Christmassy but I am a fan of an unlikeable protagonist.

Any recommendations for my last book of the year?

”Dead Babies” by Martin Amos is full of awful people too.

And “Bonfire of the Vanities” by Tom Wolfe. From which I got the excellent phrase “haemorrhaging money”. The journalist and main protagonist lawyer are just dreadful people.

Great book, godawful film adaption, the only thing the two have in common is the unlikeabilty of the characters.

Let's add 'Success' to the list.

Absolutely. And Money, and Other People. He did love a grotesque.

Dead Babies” by Martin Amos is full of awful people too.

Dead Babies is, I think, the most depressing book I’ve ever read. I must’ve read it several decades ago but I can still remember what a grim read it was.

@Andante57 to my shame I’ve never ready anything by Ivy Compton Burnett or Elizabeth Bowen. I love A Dance to the Music of Time! If you’ve disliked other novels by Anthony Powell but haven’t read it, I’d encourage you to, it’s much more readable. It has lots of horrible characters (though I find Widmerpool quite sympathetic at times) and yes, the last book in particular is weird, and has that unsettling feeling of not quite understanding its milieu - but the whole setup is so peculiar that it kind of works.

I thought of another book full of dislikeable characters - Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey. You’re clearly supposed to think they’re all marvellous but they are just massive snobs.

Agree, have started Money but haven't got far. Probably will not finish it

@Sussurations Ok, I will definitely give Dance to the Music of Time another go.
Re Elizabeth Bowen, I’d recommend The Death of the Heart as a good one to start with. I know this thread is about dislikeable characters but Major Brutt in Death of the Heart must be one of the saddest.

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton has a rather frustrating protagonist

Money, by Martin Amis

Oh god, fucking Lily Bart, House of Precisely No Mirth

Yes, I sometimes wonder about Charlotte’s dash to shut the gate but if IIRC she wasn’t aware then of Roddy’s feelings for Francie.

@SlightDrip apologies - I’ve checked and Roddy and Francie were married on the occasion of the stampeding horses. I wonder why Charlotte saved her?

Nobody is likeable in Bridehead Revisited either, despite it being a good read.

It’s been a very long time since I read it, but “Barn Blind” by Jane Smiley, has a very frustrating protagonist as I remember. She is so one track minded.

@Andante57 thank you, I will read it.

@Andante57 thank you, I will read it.

Yes, I was going to say that — I think it was just after their honeymoon, when Charlotte is coping with her devastation by a false welcomingness to both of them, while reminding Roddy of the money he owes her. When she thinks about pretending to trip so that Francie is trampled by the stampeding horses, she thinks ‘It was fascinatingly simple, but too simple, and by no means certain’. Make of that what you will!

Gone With The Wind! Scarlett O'Hara is horrible.

Good call - excellent example when commendable focus bleeds into obsession to the detriment of all around. As a horse women myself, I could painfully relate to much of it, but it could apply to so many aspects of life.

Oh yes! Forgotten about those books! Stopped reading those too as characters were so irritating and had zero sympathetic traits.

The worst thing about the Shopaholic books is that she never fucking learned.

True, zero self-awareness. How lucky that a successful (rich) PR executive fell for her 🙄.

The Bad Seed
The Collector by John Fowler

The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco, the main character is totally awful, and deliberately so.