The Contrarian Strikes
So I'm done with my two classes of summer school, which were remarkably difficult considering the change from Iowa (as in, I had to show up and I had to read books, etc). But the all-white, all-male syllabus of one of these classes got me to thinking about the following: we're force-fed a handful of books again and again, the canonical offenders yes, but also the hip lit of the moment etc. And our blog has been rather stagnant, and I feel like throwing a bomb or two.Therefore I posit this question: what is the most overrated book you've ever encountered? Or maybe a book that was handed to you by someone whose taste was usually infallible, yet turned out to be awful. I'm thinking here specifically about Doctor Copernicus, recommended whole-heartedly by an otherwise very fine visiting writer last year. I read that book and became convinced that John Banville's notion of authorial choice was not to make any authorial choices.
The book you've been asked to read the most? (Mine, far and away is Gatsby--not overrated, and I still find something new each time).
Let the flinging begin.
posted by Kistulentz @ Saturday, August 06, 2005
1 Comments:
Oh, Kis. Thanks for reviving us. Everyone likes Everything is Illuminated. I resented all but the part that made me cry. I think the most universally resented book assigned in seminar was Black Girl In Paris. I still have Joe's copy, which is a source of perpetual shame and guilt and horror. Everyone always says to read Salinger's Nine Stories. I resented the constant recommending and did not read it until last year, whereupon my resentment shifted to a grand sense of I-told-you-so's bearing down upon me. I love that book.
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