~Ji
01-01-2016, 12:42 AM
In 2015 I read some excellent books and re-read a couple of my favourites (Eugene Onegin - Pushkin and Fredy Neptune - Les Murray)
However, 2015 was also the year that for the very first time I came across a couple of books that I just could not manage to finish.
'The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon' (Richard Zilmer) was one. I know this book has many fans but for me the writing was unbelievably poor - quite amateurish in fact. Most importantly it just read as a contemporary book. There was no sense of the period in which it was set - no authentic voice of the time or place. I gave up after doggedly reading about a third of the book. It was getting worse with lots of seemingly irrelevant characters being introduced.
The second was 'Beauty is a Wound' (Eka Kurniawan) was a Christmas Gift and I have spent the last week making a genuine effort to like this book but ultimately failing. I can handle so called 'magical realism' ('Fredy Neptune' for example) and I don't mind sex, lust and erotica; but there has to be a point to it all, not just the seemingly gratuitous spilling out of grubby scenes. The shock value wears off quickly and the reader is just left with the dirty sheets.
Perhaps its just me and I am sure I will be better informed by respondents to this post.
Has anyone else been unable to finish books recommended by others?
Great reading to all in 2016,
Ji
However, 2015 was also the year that for the very first time I came across a couple of books that I just could not manage to finish.
'The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon' (Richard Zilmer) was one. I know this book has many fans but for me the writing was unbelievably poor - quite amateurish in fact. Most importantly it just read as a contemporary book. There was no sense of the period in which it was set - no authentic voice of the time or place. I gave up after doggedly reading about a third of the book. It was getting worse with lots of seemingly irrelevant characters being introduced.
The second was 'Beauty is a Wound' (Eka Kurniawan) was a Christmas Gift and I have spent the last week making a genuine effort to like this book but ultimately failing. I can handle so called 'magical realism' ('Fredy Neptune' for example) and I don't mind sex, lust and erotica; but there has to be a point to it all, not just the seemingly gratuitous spilling out of grubby scenes. The shock value wears off quickly and the reader is just left with the dirty sheets.
Perhaps its just me and I am sure I will be better informed by respondents to this post.
Has anyone else been unable to finish books recommended by others?
Great reading to all in 2016,
Ji