The Road (Cormac McCarthy): Like being hit over and over and over. Unending depression and bleakness until it hurts to read anymore. Reading this book is like doing penance. He’s a great author, but I still wish I had never read this.
The Mary Russell mysteries (Laurie King): Other people I know love these. These are a series of novels with an older Sherlock Holmes and his wife who is smarter than he. I found them terrible. Plots that make no sense, she is self-evidently not particularly intelligent, just an affront.
Snow (Orhan Pamuk): I loved his book Red. Beguiling, bewitching, entranced me throughout. This book did not. One of those rare books that I just gave up on after a few hundred pages. It felt very Russian, and in the bad ways. I wonder if his other books are any good.
What are yours?
Mike, I agree on the Tattoo books. Not only are they the reflections of a disturbed mind, there are hundreds of pages about the details of running a publishing business and other bla bla bla until he finally starts developing some plot. With that said, I’ve read the first two and I’m somehow looking forward to the third!
I trust your book opinions, and I had been considering reading The Road. Thanks.
I say the Dragon Tattoo books — essentially, they are torture/murder porn. I can’t see any other reason people would read them. I thought I’d be reading a book about a punk hacker chick.