Thursday, October 15, 2009

One hit wonders?

'Her Fearful Symmetry' by Audrey Niffenegger is sitting on my sofa waiting to be read. I am both afraid and anticipatory. Her previous novel, 'The Time Traveler's Wife' is one of the most beautiful and devastating books I have read, with a unique approach to time travel which makes it seem almost natural. I have high hopes for her new book.

However, I've found that when I read anything by the authors of some of my favourite novels, they're just not that good. 'The Poisonwood Bible' is deeply engaging and takes you into another culture and unbelievable lives. 'The Bean Trees', also by Barbara Kingsolver, is ok, but I wouldn't go further than that. 'The Secret History' is very clever and dark and involving, but 'The Little Friend' is just unpleasant. And 'We need to talk about Kevin' - well... To finally find someone who would admit the possibility that having children might not be everything it is cracked up to be, to have a believable and likeable character say that they weren't really sure they wanted children, but had one anyway, and it turned out they didn't really like it - it posed questions, it moved me, it challenged me. Whereas Lionel Shriver's other two novels which I have read - I don't like anyone in 'Double Fault' and 'The Post-Birthday World' just really isn't good.

Maybe it isn't fair to describe these authors as one-hit wonders just because I like one book so much more than the others. Maybe their other novels are actually not that bad, just not as good as the books I love. Maybe it's me - some books just struck a chord with me and I failed to connect with the others. But whatever, I'll let you know how I get on with my new book.

6 comments:

Fat Roland said...

Aaaah. Reading this blog post made me nostalgic for your classic and never-bettered debut 'Politicising A Generation?"(http://sarahcontrary.blogspot.com/2005/07/politicising-generation.html)

Sarah said...

Oh yes, back in those days where I had something to say rather than just complaining about pregnancy symptoms?

rach said...

I like it that we have the same views on books, perhaps you can read the pile of books I have hear and let me know if it's worth me bothering?

rach said...

Argh, I mean "here" - I am obviously ill if my ability to use the correct spelling is leaving me...

Sarah said...

Yes, I'd be very happy to read all your books and tell you what I think of them. I'll take them away when we come to get that chair. And keep them for months and bring them back with baby sick on them... Not really. Sorry to hear you're ill - I missed you on Friday night.

Zoe said...

I remember when jake projectile vomited all over my bookcase once. Good times...
(he only did it once, and all the books wiped clean, so dont worry sarah, it'll be fine!)
I just went out and bought the secret history after you mentioned it because you reminded me how much i enjoyed it. I hope its just a good now.
Of course, it'll probably be three years before i get round to reading it...