| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| starmekitten |
Posted - 04/12/2006 : 04:09:48
I'm reading Underworld - Don Delillo and I have been reading it for some time.
I started reading it because I found it in a charity shop for cheap and I had heard so many good things. It's one of those books everyone gushes about.
The fact I have been reading it for some time, however, is indicative of the way I feel about it. I don't think I like it, dislike isn't appropriate in this case, it's just not enjoyable. Every now and then is a gem of a line that makes me grin but I can't wade through in the hope of another.
I'm 600 pages through, I have less than 300 to go, but at this rate it'll take me another month to finish the damn thing and I wonder if it isn't a waste of my time. Because I'm mostly through I am at loathe to quit after all this effort but then life is too short to waste time on something I'm just not digging.
To quit? Or not to quit?
That is the question.
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I tried doing that once, making every minute count. It gave me a headache. |
| 35 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| offerw |
Posted - 04/20/2006 : 10:18:20
Problem with Underworld, I think, could be the dull main character. A waste management expert. Really.
The good part of the book is where he goes into the Arizona desert and meets Klara, his ex lover who now paints abandoned war planes. The writing suited that part of the story very well.
I haven't read any other Delillo yet but White Noise seems to be his most read.
wilhelm |
| floop |
Posted - 04/20/2006 : 09:55:25
white noise
"I don't have any money to buy new clothes and if they paid me to get some I'd probably buy more hoodies." - Mark Wainfur |
| starmekitten |
Posted - 04/20/2006 : 08:20:54
It hasn't put me off reading another Delillo book because the writing was superb; I just felt the story fell short and the way it was presented wasn't enough to compensate.
If I wanted to try Delillo again where would you reccommend I start?
forum ebook - "on the road" theme - help wanted |
| offerw |
Posted - 04/20/2006 : 08:15:42
I thought Underworld was good.
He writes beautifully.
wilhelm |
| Carl |
Posted - 04/19/2006 : 11:02:50
You should be more like brother Mo-he would not quit, he would not quit!!
 |
| floop |
Posted - 04/18/2006 : 13:19:20
i forgot to mention that i had the same problem with this book. and i like Delillo. i started reading it when it first came out and got through about 100 pages.
"I don't have any money to buy new clothes and if they paid me to get some I'd probably buy more hoodies." - Mark Wainfur |
| Homers_pet_monkey |
Posted - 04/16/2006 : 03:27:59
Memorable then ; )
 I'd walk her everyday, into a shady place
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| starmekitten |
Posted - 04/16/2006 : 03:26:37
I loved that book and I wish I could remember why....
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I tried doing that once, making every minute count. It gave me a headache.
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| Homers_pet_monkey |
Posted - 04/16/2006 : 03:21:47
I didn't like the writing style for a start, and as I remember, the story was taking a hell of a long time to get going.
I'd walk her everyday, into a shady place
|
| Apesy |
Posted - 04/15/2006 : 22:18:49
Speaking of Generation X: I was reading Coupland's Hey Nostradamus! last summer, and even though I was completely digging it, for whatever reason I stopped reading about 80% of the way through. I still don't know what happened. Now it's impossible for me to go back to it, because I'd need to read the whole thing over again and I have so much on my plate as it is.
What is it about Generation X you didn't like, Homer? I've never actually read it, but I've almost bought it on several occasions (including tonight, in fact).
-=Apesy |
| floop |
Posted - 04/15/2006 : 21:21:38
quote:
Originally posted by kathryn
How anybody can say that about Updike is laughable.
Updike. hehhehehheh
"I don't have any money to buy new clothes and if they paid me to get some I'd probably buy more hoodies." - Mark Wainfur |
| kathryn |
Posted - 04/15/2006 : 19:00:52
quote:
Originally posted by jimmy
Tom Wolfe complains about writers like Norman Mailer and John Updike for writing novels like the ones Zub The Goat is talking about- books that are more concerned with being artistic than telling an actual story.
How anybody can say that about Updike is laughable. (Taking a shot at Tom Wolfe, not at zub.)
The only kickass book by DeLillo is White Noise.
To quit is the answer.
I’m the only one who can say that this light is mine
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| starmekitten |
Posted - 04/15/2006 : 17:21:17
You are right. I think I have the "but what if the end redeems it" argument put to me fairly often but I have never actually read a book that had sufficiently good an ending to make up for all the other nonsense it contained. Underworld is going back to the charity shop I think. No use it sitting on my shelf.
Oh, my housemate might want it to make him look clever; it's a big thick book and he really needs the help.
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I tried doing that once, making every minute count. It gave me a headache.
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| floop |
Posted - 04/15/2006 : 09:44:00
quote:
Originally posted by starmekitten
The idea of quitting is what bothers me. I really hate to do it. However, I spoke to a friend of mine last night who read this book and she said, "Er, it doesn't get any better. I didn't like it" so I am giving up.
Oh but it feels wrong.
-
I tried doing that once, making every minute count. It gave me a headache.
putting a book down because you don't like it is a sign of maturity. you know what you like or don't like. if you've given it more than half way and it doesn't grab you then what's the point?
kind of like the time i tried reading Ayn Rand's THE FOUNTAINHEAD and just realized, "this is gay"
"I don't have any money to buy new clothes and if they paid me to get some I'd probably buy more hoodies." - Mark Wainfur |
| jimmy |
Posted - 04/15/2006 : 06:56:01
Tom Wolfe complains about writers like Norman Mailer and John Updike for writing novels like the ones Zub The Goat is talking about- books that are more concerned with being artistic than telling an actual story.
And people always say that Stephen King represents the lowest level of literature, but whatever you think of him, he does write novels the right way- his books have stories and they're well told.
A couple years ago he wrote a book called "On Writing- A Memoir of the Craft". It's advice on how to write and get published, mixed in with stories of his life and career. I don't want to be a writer or anything, but it was such a good book I read it twice.
Speaking of Amazon.com- the reviews that people write are great, people act like they're writing for Vanity Fair or Rolling Stone. I came across a great one written by a real freak named Daniel J Hamlow about the Prince album "Around the World in a Day". If you get a chance, check it out.
"Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." JOHN 15:14 |
| starmekitten |
Posted - 04/15/2006 : 05:40:12
Nah, I have a generic pseudonym for submitting things under a different name and it's a hell of a lot better than "Mandy".
Mine is very Mills and Boon.
On purpose.
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I tried doing that once, making every minute count. It gave me a headache.
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| PixieSteve |
Posted - 04/15/2006 : 05:37:19
haha, you just submitted that under a different name to feel better about being a quitter, quitter!
 |
| starmekitten |
Posted - 04/15/2006 : 05:23:24
Haha love it. That's exactly the problem I have with so much literature, writing to show off how well you use the language as opposed to writing to say or evoke something. I didn't feel the plot was the key part of this novel or even much of a part. It was a big fat set of words written in allegedly clever ways. I like to be challenged by a book and I like well written books but I want the book to be more than prose.
Thank you zub! I feel so much better for reading that.
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I tried doing that once, making every minute count. It gave me a headache.
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| zub_the_goat |
Posted - 04/15/2006 : 04:24:31
I havent read it, but i was considering it a while ago...but this reviewer on amazon seemed to have the same problems as you did...
"This isn't a novel - its an entity called "high art", June 23, 2004
Reviewer: Mandy Scott - See all my reviews
Personally I think it's bad form to slate any book - not least because, naturally, different things appeal to different people - so I am sorry to have to say that this really is dire.
Like many others, wow'd by the reviews and always keen to immerse myself in something fat and meaningful (!), I rushed home and couldn't wait to begin. To be honest I was really quite confused to find that the 40 page prologue read like a "look-at-me-aren't-I-the-wordsmith" A level essay (for which grade a E would be awarded along with "pompous") rather than the "breathlessly graceful" writing I was promised in the amazon editorial review.
And it was downhill from there on. With still 800 odd pages to go.
So what's wrong with it? The writing style is highly repetitive, anally descriptive and ultimatly fails to actually bring a picture to ones imagination because the writing of the description is the point, not the drawing of the picture. Unbelievable really.
And it isnt a novel either. A novel (opps slipped into Delillo style for a tick there), to my feeble mind, has a plot or failing that, at least a point. This book has neither.
And the only "human condition" it caused me to wonder about was how Delillo had managed to drag quite so many reviewers up his own arse with him. Perchance the victory of this book is the number of people he has managed to fool ........ or maybe I'm just too dim to drop into the "insights" this book supposedly contains.
Whichever, these days I only give a book 100 pages to prove itself - and if in those 100 it fails to engage then I give it the heave ho - my life is too short to waste it trawling though something that gives me nothing in return for my effort.
If you want some decent, thought provoking "human condition" american writing - stick with the master and get some Steinbeck.
Or if you just want something to read you'll get more out of the Sun "news"paper. Its that bad."
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| starmekitten |
Posted - 04/15/2006 : 03:58:58
I did and read The Innocent - Ian McEwan; it felt like a big breath of fresh air.
Has anyone actually read underworld? Did they have the same problem I did?
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I tried doing that once, making every minute count. It gave me a headache.
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| zub_the_goat |
Posted - 04/15/2006 : 03:53:17
Yeah, i was reading a book like that 'American Gods' great premise, but kept getting irratated by it, but then it had a really good line and i kept on reading....i finally reached the end, and i feel used, stop reading kitty, its just not worth it! If your reading a book beacuse you feel you should its not worth it... |
| starmekitten |
Posted - 04/13/2006 : 02:39:11
The idea of quitting is what bothers me. I really hate to do it. However, I spoke to a friend of mine last night who read this book and she said, "Er, it doesn't get any better. I didn't like it" so I am giving up.
Oh but it feels wrong.
-
I tried doing that once, making every minute count. It gave me a headache.
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| cassandra is |
Posted - 04/13/2006 : 02:04:00
then you don't sleep, right?
pas de bras pas de chocolat |
| scruvs |
Posted - 04/13/2006 : 02:00:56
I don't read. Life is too short.
_____________________
Boy, you sure can holler. |
| cassandra is |
Posted - 04/13/2006 : 00:20:14
I think some books really need more efforts than others, and it's the same for some movies or some albums. Like ou can't honestly judge some albums by listening to them just once. But sometimes, even the bad ones have to get their chance: if you just read, listen or watch things you immediatly like, it's intellectually limited, it doesn't build up your judgment.
pas de bras pas de chocolat |
| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 04/12/2006 : 23:00:35
I agree with Jimmy, but what happens when it's a classic like Don Quixote or Crime & Punishment?
 "If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate." |
| jimmy |
Posted - 04/12/2006 : 21:03:08
I agree w/ benji. A good book should make you want to read it straight though. You should want to cancel all your plans and call in sick to work.
Don't feel bad- it's the author's fault if don't want to keep reading.
When I get John Douglas's "Mindhunter" I read it all the way through one weekend, I couldn't stop. He started all that FBI profiling, and the stories in the book are fascinating.
"Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." JOHN 15:14 |
| Daisy Girl |
Posted - 04/12/2006 : 18:32:32
quit. think about all the other cool things you can do with your time. if you feel like it later you can always pick it back up! |
| danjersey |
Posted - 04/12/2006 : 10:12:22
I am not proud of this but sometimes i go to the end of the book and read the last sentence and then move on.
short stories are more my speed lately. |
| BLT |
Posted - 04/12/2006 : 09:58:04
It usually takes me three weeks to get through the first half of a book and three days to finish the rest. If I quit every book that seemed to start slow, I'd never get through any of them.
 Does anyone remember laughter? |
| cassandra is |
Posted - 04/12/2006 : 09:38:14
yes, but what if life gets better in the final half?
pas de bras pas de chocolat |
| floop |
Posted - 04/12/2006 : 09:24:12
if i don't like a book after half way i'll stop reading it. life is too short
"I don't have any money to buy new clothes and if they paid me to get some I'd probably buy more hoodies." - Mark Wainfur |
| Homers_pet_monkey |
Posted - 04/12/2006 : 09:00:45
I have only ever quit movies that are on TV, and I have never quit an album to my knowledge. Genberation X is the only book I have given up on. I may go back to it though one day, as I own it.
I'd walk her everyday, into a shady place
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| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 04/12/2006 : 07:39:06
Yeah, I'm horrible at quitting. Especially if I was that far in. That's how I finally got into Cloud Atlas (very happy I didn't quit that one because the end made the agony of the beginning worth it). But that said, if I were able to do so, I would. I quit on Don Quixote, but I never got far anyway and it wasn't conscious. I just kept finding other things to do and soon I felt like I'd have to start over so it was like I'd never tried.
"If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate." |
| cassandra is |
Posted - 04/12/2006 : 05:43:05
I'm kinda maniac with books, albums and movies (but mostly with books in that case), even if I don't like a book, I -almost- always have to finish it, I can't help it. If I don't, I feel bad.
But what you are telling about Don Dellilo's Underworld frightens me a bit: it's just the next one on my list of books to read.
pas de bras pas de chocolat |
