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| The book that drove me to ponder abandoning it in a ditch. |
I picked up this book on a whim last year at Powell's. Had never heard of it. I'd been trying to read more fiction, and I purposefully looked for a fiction book by an author I didn't know.
I smiled before I started this little novel, satisfied with my sense of adventure, knowing that I would read it and finish it, easy. Because usually when I start a book, I'm going to finish it, no matter what. I want to add it to my list and keep it on my shelf.
But this book. I could hardly bring myself to pick up this book again after page 20 or so. By page 47 I was so angry at this Mr. Calvino I wanted to contact him to register my complaints, only to be disappointed to find he is dead. Yes, I know now this book is experimental and avant-garde and I am supposed to try to be hip enough to catch his drift, but he's broken all the rules, all the agreements between author and reader--which was his point, of course. But by the middle of the book I couldn't trust him to lead me into meaning, or resolution, or safety. Perhaps he wanted me to never take another story for granted.
So now I know: I need a book with a beginning, middle and end. A book with conflict. A book that treats me with respect and honors the code between author and reader. (Am I saying I need a book that follows rules? I'm trying so hard to get away from that.)
I did finish this book. Seething by the last page. Exhausted from the emotional roller coaster.
Postscript: I looked for my copy of this book when I wrote this post, then remembered that I had taken it to Goodwill. Which I am now regretting.
And you---would you ever abandon a book?
I abandoned The Two Towers (second of the LOTR series) when I was complaining relentlessly about it. I also gave up on The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (found him too pretentious). And I give up much more frequently now than I did before I turned 40.
ReplyDeleteSeattle librarian and author of Book Lust, Nancy Pearl, said “If you're 50 years old or younger, give every book about 50 pages before you decide to commit yourself to reading it, or give it up. If you're over 50, which is when time gets shorter, subtract your age from 100 - the result is the number of pages you should read before deciding whether or not to quit. If you're 100 or over you get to judge the book by its cover, despite the dangers in doing so.” I think this is an excellent guideline!
The book (which I finished) that infuriated me the most was The Magus by John Fowles--it was a brilliant book but drove me crazy! We read it many years ago for a coed book group we were in (before children). Have you ever read that one?
I've never read The Magus. Good advice from Nancy Pearl, but I still feel committed to the author somehow. The fact is, I was really angry at the author of the book above, but in a way I'm glad I stuck it out. Now that I've had some time away from it, I kind of want to re-read it to see if I can figure out what he is really trying to say (I was too mad to really see that). Unfortunately, I sent it off to Goodwill. Not going to buy it again.
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