Books that let you down

[Anonymous]

Three of the recent disappointments I've read:

Wild: hated it, and didn't even finish it.
The Interestings: so uninteresting!
Amercanah: just didn't get all the hype.

[Anonymous]

The Marriage Plot: A novel
Little Bee
The Goldfinch
Gone Girl
Anthropology of an American Girl
Anything by Jonathan Franzen- So much hype, so annoying to read

[Anonymous]

To my great shame, I attempted to read Fifty Shades of Grey. Why was it so bad? Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meg Wolitzer's "The Interestings." I didn't find any of them the least bit interesting,

Most of Curtis Sittenfeld's stuff. She's a good writer, but her female characters are all so passive. It makes me wonder if a lot of women are passive, since I'm not, at all.

I really liked American Wife, though I found it almost creepily intrusive re: Laura Bush. I hated Prep. I thought the protagonist was self-loathing and pathetic, and I really didn't get where that was supposed to come from. The Man of My Dreams was stupid, and Sisterland was fine except for the obvious thing with Hank, which again was just dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree on Gone Girl; I hate hate HATED Forrest Gump.

The movie (Gump) was great especially if you could appreciate all the historical references.

I got all the historical references, that's part of what I hated about it. Contrived.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Glass Castle.

I picked it up based on so many favorable comments on DCUM and was so disappointed in the end. There were small parts that were compelling It is supposed to be a memoir, but I couldn't shake the feeling that the whole thing was a self-absorbed lie.

I heard her on Diane Rehm's show, and would disagree with you. There was something sort of prickly about her (I don't mean that as a criticism at all) that lent credibility to her story. Like the memories were still difficult for her. She sounded pained especially when someone asked about what became of the youngest sister, and she talked about how lost the sister is, that of all the children, she's the one who has been the least able to overcome the dysfunction of their childhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Interestings and Middlesex

Thank goodness! I was beginning to feel I was the only one who hated it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Three of the recent disappointments I've read:

Wild: hated it, and didn't even finish it.
The Interestings: so uninteresting!
Amercanah: just didn't get all the hype.

Gah! I'm pp and you have The Interestings, which I hated, and Americanah, which I've been meaning to read. I loved Half of a Yellow Sun.

[Anonymous]

I read The Marriage Plot and can't remember the first thing about it. I've felt let down by all of Eugenides's books.

Also the last two books by Claire Messud--The Woman Upstairs and The Emperor's Children.

[Anonymous]

The Interestings---- total bore

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I read The Marriage Plot and can't remember the first thing about it. I've felt let down by all of Eugenides's books.

Also the last two books by Claire Messud--The Woman Upstairs and The Emperor's Children.

The Emperor's Children -- one of the handful of books I just couldn't bring myself to finish. Self-absorbed New Yorkers, gaah. Ten years ago I might have appreciated the real estate porn, but I guess I've grown out of that phase.

[Anonymous]

The Postmistress. Some of those metaphors I will never get out of my head, like "the sky arched like the back of a black cat." Huh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Postmistress. Some of those metaphors I will never get out of my head, like "the sky arched like the back of a black cat." Huh?

PP again. OK, maybe that was a simile. But the point holds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Three of the recent disappointments I've read:

Wild: hated it, and didn't even finish it.
The Interestings: so uninteresting!
Amercanah: just didn't get all the hype.

I also didn't finish Wild. I just thought it was blah.