Quote:
Originally Posted by mcramer
It's very rare that I drop a book. The closest I have got in the last few years is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It is the most depressing book I have read ever! Anything after the first 50 pages was a struggle and I still can't really figure out why I fininshed it (sheer bloody mindedness I guess  ) |
That's funny, as that's the last book I read. It is depressing, though for me that's not a discouragement usually. If you want depressing (but "essential reading"), try Primo Levi's 'If This Is A Man' (for some reason renamed 'Survival in Auschwitz' in the US I believe). It is a mighty brilliant darkness he presents, and it'll stay with you.
However, a book I have put down three times is 'The Satanic Verses' (Salman Rushdie). I really don't know why, as his skill as a writer is perfectly obvious and quite enjoyable. Yet, I end up putting it down. It still sits there, and I'll retake the challenge again one day. I might try 'Grimus' beforehand, as I'm informed by someone who I respect a lot for their opinions and who knows my specific "tastes" that I would most probably like it enormously.
A book that I slogged through was 'The Sea, The Sea' (Iris Murdoch). It was just a character assassination of a whole of seemingly completely unlikeable characters by a character you wish was assassinated early, before he got to writing about his life. That, amongst other things, may be the point, but it was hard to find interest in people that were boringly neurotic and yet wretchedly vacuous. I wish "the sea, the sea" would have risen higher and washed them all away. I did finish it though. It has tarnished any desire to read more of Murdoch's novels, however.
Cheers,
Marc