A Series of Unpopular Book Opinions
Here's where you tell me how wrong I am #55
Also known as That One Where the Book Mafia Puts Kerry on a Watch List. Because you know that feeling when you’re so excited to read a well-reviewed or best-selling book that everyone just loves and once you read it you think:
Now, I waffled on this discussion because certainly no one needs more negativity in the world right now (Omicron, I am talking to you, you wily devil). And by the very definition of popularity, most of you will adore the books that weren’t for me. Which is FINE and GREAT, I LOVE YOU, and please do let’s remember our first rule of reading: read what you love and ignore the haters, which in this case I guess is me. Plot twist!
But sometimes I find it a relief to find someone else who has the same critique that I do about a beloved book, to remember that reading, like all art, is so subjective. That you’re not a philistine because you don’t love the Pulitzer winner. That your take on a book is valid because it’s your own.
So in a break from our regularly scheduled book recommendations, let’s take a minute to talk about those popular books we just didn’t love, didn’t get, and can’t recommend. Please, please leave your “not for me!” books in the comments, it’ll be a collective literary catharsis!
No, I’m sorry, I know, this is a wildly unpopular opinion! I just … no.
Why I didn’t love it: Yes, she’s a great writer, but this whole problem could have been solved with one well-written email or going out to coffee and using some grownup words. Come ON! The whole thing was maddening.
We’re just talking about everyone’s actual favorite book here. Not at all dangerous territory.
Why I didn’t love it: Never Let Me Go also has beautiful and melancholy writing, so of course I understand the appeal. But I found it really slow going and the “sci-fi” elements felt weirdly unresolved, not to mention the relentless obsession with sex. I JUST DIDN’T GET WHAT YOU ALL GET, OK?
I read On the Road in my 30s and … that was just too late in life to read this, I think.
Why I didn’t love it: Blech. Take a shower and get a job, for crying out loud.
(I KNOW. Sacrilege and heresy!)
Okay. Okay okay. Hear me out. I think Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of the most compelling, precise writers and public speakers. If there’s someone working who makes more ideal word choices, I don’t know who it is. So I was very excited for The Water Dancer.
Why I didn’t love it: Again, beautiful writing, but every character sounded unrealistically educated and introspective, which … maybe that was the point. But worse, they all sounded exactly alike, and the dialogue was all about advancing the plot and not fleshing out the speaker. To me, the characterizations were hugely disappointing.
You thought I was going to begin with Crawdads, didn’t you? A reasonable assumption but mais non, little hummingbirds, I like to keep you guessing! Anyway, since I’ve mentioned these before, here’s my lightning round of grievances:
Where the Crawdads Sing: Beautiful nature writing but an absurd and unbelievable plot.
The Goldfinch: A bloated procession of pre-chewed adventures that ends with a long treatise about, like, art and What It All Means, just in case the prior 650 pages didn’t tell you. WHY, Donna Tartt?
We Begin At The End: Suffer porn with a fully unbelievable main character. Not a fan.
Next week: we return to our regularly scheduled positivity and book love!
Apparently I Read No Good Books This Year
New York Times Top Ten? I’ve read zero. I own one, does that count?
The Guardian top fiction? I’ve read one (Luster).
WSJ Best Books of 2021? wha …? I haven’t even heard of most of these.
I case some validation is helpful: OH MY GOD YES on every one of these except for Never Let Me Go (of course) and maybe a tiny bit The Water Dancer, which I thought was.... fine.