Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
His basic writing philosophy seems to be "why say something in a sentence if you can say it in a whole page instead?".
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Harry, I think you should make a few more attempts before completely abandoning Mr. King. John Steinbeck also suffered from the affliction you mention above, but he is considered on of our greatest American authors.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyssa
I personally could not get into The Tommyknockers. I tried multiple times, with absolutely no success. I don't even think I made it past the first 10 pages, if that.
My favorite was definitely The Dark Half. |
What's interesting is that, even though we can almost universally agree on his worst, what we individually consider to be his best covers a wide range of his works. I believe that is his strongest advantage as an author. His appeal to a wide range of readers.
Novels touch us all in different ways due to our own personal experiences and we judge them based, not only on what the author has put into them, but also on what we, too, put into them. Someone mentioned Gerard's Game as the worst that he has written. I remember it as having the most powerful, memorable, albeit cringeworthy, scene I have ever encountered. It may not be his best work, but it, more than anything else I've ever read, made me feel as though I was experiencing what the character was going through.
I think there will come a time where his lesser works are nearly forgotten and he is considered to be a shining example of late 20th century American literature. Of course, I expect this statement to be scoffed and laughed at, but remember that what we consider to be the best examples of authors of great literature from the past, are also those who were the most popular and widely read: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Steinbeck, Hemingway...