Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
I agree that World War II looms large in this as it did overtly in The Remains of the Day. [...]
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Yes, I thought this came across quite strongly, even down to a certain starkness and sparseness in the countryside; this did not feel like a rich country, almost as if it was still recovering from the war.
Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
[...] I think self-indulgent is likely closer to the mark. He wrote the story he wanted to write with I suspect little consideration of readers. [...]
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Perhaps my own endeavours in the field have made me overly sensitive, but I find such judgements on an author ... presumptuous. Just because I didn't like something the author did it wrong? It's particularly obvious in a case like this where evidence abounds that a great many readers like the book very much, and the work has won considerable critical acclaim. I don't expect to like a book just because it's popular, but if a book finds favour among a significant audience then I feel that criticising the author is flying in the face of the evidence - they obviously did something right, even if it wasn't right for me.
Disclaimer: I suspect we all sometimes express a criticism as fault when we are meaning only that it wasn't to our taste, and sometimes authors really do screw up, or just aren't that good, but sometimes the expressions of fault are so explicit but seemingly out of place as to beg for correction ... or so it seems to me.