10 Hateful, Overrated Pieces Of "Literature"
Submitted by kbloom on Tue, 02/20/2001 - 10:00
Tags:
- 10) Meridian - Alice Walker
- 9) A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway
- 8) Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
- 7) Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
- 6) Maurice - E.M. Forster
- 5) The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
- 4) Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
- 3) Madame Bovary - Gustav Flaubert
- 2) A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
- 1) Player Piano - Kurt Vonnegut
Author Comments:
"Anna Karenina" and "Madame Bovary" are essentially the same novel. Shallow, married women shouldn't have affairs ... or something to that effect. "A Prayer for Owen Meaney" is several hundred pages of vomit (like everything else John Irving writes). The familiar motifs of bears, Vienna, wrestling, New England private schools, and incest are touched upon, natch. "Player Piano" doesn't read like it was written by Vonnegut.
PP was KV's first, written when he still wasn't sure he wasn't a science fiction writer. When he became sure he wasn't a sf writer, he got into his stride and became legitimate/famous - as distinct from sf/famous.
Out of curiosity, what's your problem with John Irving? I've personally enjoyed almost everything of his I've read.
I'm curious about this as well. I don't come across many folks that hate him, and even those that do still like A Prayer for Owen Meany.
If I could bring myself to like any of the Irving novels I've read, it'd be Garp, probably. I feel like the concept of subtlety isn't part of his writerly repertoire. I wish it were. He creates interesting characters, then buries them in symbolism and contrived tragedy. But hey - that's just a personal preference.
You don't HAVE to pay attention to the symbolism. :)
The Grapes of Wrath was a great novel, it was really touching. I haven't read Madame Bovary but I thought Sentimental Education was excellent.
i'm with you on most of these, but i'm curious about your reasons for Farewell to Arms and Maurice. i read the former (and thought it a bit much) but i only saw the movie of the latter.
Good call on A Farewell to Arms. I HATE Ernest Hemingway. On the subject of A Prayer for Owen Meaney, I have to say that the story is great but Irving's writing style doesn't appeal to me.
I am curious as to what it is about Hemingway that you don't like. I've only read "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and, granted, I read it for it's description of the Spanish Civil War mostly, but I found the book to be good. The only thing I really didn't like was his way of writing somewhat formal English when the speaker was supposed to be speaking Spanish. But, I thought the story was good and the insight into the war was good as well.
My declaration of hating Ernest Hemingway is based upon having read only Farewell to Arms and several short stories. Consequently, my judgement is quite superficial. It is premature to say that I hate him, I should have said that of the few things I've read by him, well, I did not like them. Why? His style is very simplistic and straight forward which does not disturb me so much. My problems with Hemingway stem from the ideas he presents in his stories. The themes of manly honour, courage, sacrifice are all highly valued and stressed throughout and I disagree with much that he has to say on these subjects. Of course, this is NOT a problem with his talent and skill in presenting a story, its just the way in which he views certain things that disturbs me. I'm hoping that this coming summer I'll be able to read some more Hemingway so that I can get a better feel for his works. I'll probably end up reading For Whom the Bell Tolls.
I can understand that. His fascination with the bull fight seems to be an extension of this manly honour theme he seems to stress. I felt that, in For Whom the Bell Tolls, which is the only Hemingway I've read, there wasn't so much of this kind of thing there. One of the strongest characters is a woman, and the main male character has his own weaknesses and doubts about what he is to do. But, if his other books stress the themes you mention more, I can understand why you didn't like it. I felt that his description of the Spanish Civil War, especially the details of how the war came to one small pueblo, greatly added to the overall history you would get in a general history of the war.
Well, I had time to kill before work today so I headed over to Borders. Looking through some authors I came across Hemingway and I decided to check out The Sun Also Rises for a couple of minutes. I have this to say, I wish I could've bought it!!! It was very good(at least the beginning), and I was unfortunately getting into it. I say unfortunately because I'm in the middle of several other books that I'd like to finish before. But anyways, it might have been a little too early for me to judge Hemingway.
I totally agree with you. Jude the Obscure is a perfectly awful and horribly depressing book. It is one of the few books I have had to force myself to read. I only forced myself to finish it so that I could verifiably say I read it all and it wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.
Pardon my late comment on your very old list, but, Player Piano, Vonnegut's first novel, was published in 1952. I'm not sure it's fair to slam it for not "reading like it was written by Vonnegut", because many first novels end up being regarded as something less than the author's best work. As for it being "hateful", I'm not sure where you're going with that...
How is Maurice "hateful"?