I can't read fiction

[KittyFanesParasol]

Anyone else?

I just can't follow the storyline or understand the narrative.

I'm not fussy with non fiction - I'll read anything, but haven't read fiction since childhood.

I'm not neurodiverse. I do have quite bad face blindness but don't think that's related. XH said it was because I have no imagination (he might be right?)

It's fine to read whatever you enjoy. I have the opposite problem where I struggle to read non-fiction. But it's my leisure time, so I read what I want 😁.

I like small, quiet, realist stories. But, as I discovered, perhaps not about smalltown Maine!

Can you picture things and people in your mind's eye? I forget what it's called, but some people can't and I believe it impairs the experience of reading fiction for those who suffer from it.

Or just ES's sensibility that doesn't work for you as a reader? I've only read Lucy Barton and whichever one came immediately afterwards. ES wasn't for me.

But I can think of lots of other fiction writers whom I can acknowledge are brilliant, they're simply not to my taste at all. Muriel Spark, Cormac McCarthy, VS Naipaul, Irvine Welsh, Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, JM Coetzee for example. I've read enough of each of them, probably a minimum of two novels, to know I won't derive pleasure from reading more. I can see why other people admire them, but what they do isn't of interest to me.

Yes, we're all different - but for me, it's so hard to find a truly satisfying work of fiction. The author has gone to all that trouble creating a world I'm simply not interested in, and I go to all the trouble of reading it without finding much reward.

Now and then, I'll hit a seam of gold and never want the book to end. But at least half the time, I'm thinking "Is there any point finishing this?" It's infuriating when you persevere, only to find the answer is "No"!