Books which you couldn't understand when you were younger but now 'get' totally

[Pruners]

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Isn't it strange. It's touted as some kind of seminal teenage novel, and yet none of us seemed to get it as teenagers. Maybe that was Salinger's aim - that the book would be as misunderstood as its (anti)hero.

"The Crucible" - we did that at school and I thought it was an interesting book, but I certainly didn't get why it was so powerful. And I only really appreciated Shakespeare when I've seen it acted out as it does nothing for me on the page.

That being said, we also did "Oliver Twist" and "Great Expectations" at school and I still don't get what's so great about Dickens. Is it just me, or did he really just write over-sentimentalised pap?

Catcher in the Rye, like everyone else.

I couldn't stand D.H. Lawrence at school, still can't but get why it was important now.

Totally agree about Dickens, Snorbs. I've never got him. I have always put it down to having an aversion to the Victorian mind-set as a whole, though.

Still can't do the miserable Dickens, mind you, but then I can't do anything with a miserable ending - RL's usually too bleak as it is!!

Haven't read whole thread so may have been said but Nabokov's Pale Fire (which to me age 18 just seemed impenetrable and crap) and to a lesser extent Lolita (all that boring road travel stuff) Now would reread either over many in recent prize lists

Thomas Hardy. But I feel guilty saying it as my grandad used to think he was the most wondrous writer ever and I felt bad when he gave me 'Tess' and I hated it. I had to lie cos I didn't want to upset him.

Wuthering heights

anything by George Orwell

I reread Great Expectations recently and thought it was wonderful. Yes, pap, but good, well written pap, if that's not a contradiction in terms. Fanatastic plot and characters.

This Dickens thing is weird, isn't it. It's only when I saw the Ioan Gruffudd version of Great Expectations in the late 90s that I realised the ending doesn't have to be seen as miserable. And I'd been brought up on things like Tale of Two Cities (so wanted to write Tities there...) so all I knew of Dickens was 'woe is me, isn't life sad'.

Anna Karenina

As I teenager I thought she was a hideous character but I've got more sympathy for her situation now.

To all you Catcher fans - I've just finished it (finally), with a great effort at the last, prompted by all those who said how wonderful, etc., especially on the adult re-read, and I still want to say

uh?

Oh dear. Perhaps we should start a book club-style thread to discuss it?

Sorry, I just wanted to slap him. Doesn't bode well for when my DD-to-be becomes a teenager...