As for the plot of Gatsby: Gatsby has been longing his whole adult life for something, and gets to where he finally thinks he’s got it. But once it’s in his grasp, it crumbles between his fingers and he can’t understand why or even admit to himself it’s happening. I don’t think any high schooler has lived through that, but as an adult, once you have done so in your own life, it carries a terrible resonance.
Actually, the book I hated most was Henry James’ The Beast in the Jungle. First of all, it has James’ trademark, pages-long, soul-destroying sentences. There are no Beasts in the book, and no Jungle. nothing happens in the book, and it turns out that the whole point of the book is supposed to be that nothing happens. But it takes a he;lluva long time to not happen.
Both Pepper Mill and I also loathe A Separate Peace. we both had to read it in high school. Pepper hates it more than I do, because she had to read it twice.
I give special mention to Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych. Even though you know he’s going to die (the title is a dead giveaway), it takes so damned long to happen. It feels as if it takes longer than the actual book. It reminds me of a cartoonI once saw, which had the title Despondent Russian Novelist Committing Suicide by Leaping from Atop his Suicide Note. “The Death of Ivan Ilych” could be the prototype for that note.
I agree with the remarks about *Catcher in the Rye. *
I tried three times to read Hesse’s Steppenwolf, but could never get past Page 27. I never tried to read another Hesse novel.
Shakespeare’s magnificent, but I can’t stand Romeo and Juliet.
The Grapes of Wrath. Just awful.
The Mill on The Floss. Especially as taught by a very nice but dull teacher who believed in going through books line by unremitting line. See Maggie miserable, see George Eliot explain Maggie’s Misery at length. Ponder why a novel with many autobiographical elements should have a heroine whose tragic and stupid life is the antithesis of the author’s. Actually that last makes it almost interesting but we weren’t encouraged to think about it in school.
My Jane Austen bete noire is Northanger Abbey. Hey let’s give 16 yr old schoolgirls a book about stupid 16 year old girls, they’re bound to be amused! In later life I’ve decided Jane Austen was a spiteful old cat without a good word for anyone.
From the link: "everything afterwards smacks of striving to write a “great” work, rather than simply striving to write—it’s all too voulu. " Anybody else want to punch Daniel Mendelsohn right in the dick for that sentence?
Pepper Mill says that she agrees about The Catcher in the Rye.
But I have to protest The Grapes of Wrath – I liked that one. I’ve liked all the Steinbeck I’ve read.
From Slate -
snerk
For myself, there’s three abominations:
Heart of Darkness. (Oh God, the Darkness. Did I mention that it was dark? AND Menacing. Very. Also dark.)
Jesus, yes, we get it already. You’re very good at symbology. Sheesh.
I wrote a HS paper on this dreck where I very studiously compared it (in the classic HS five-paragraph style) to a steaming pile of shit. I got an A- because my HS teacher thought I needed to at least *attempt *to make my point without the use of profanity.
Lord of the Flies. (oh God, kids are evil. Evil! EEEEVIL I TELL YOU!!1!!! Without society’s constraints, we’re all just ANIMALS!! EEEEVIL Animals!1!)
Yes, psychic wince thanks, I gathered that. I *needed *to be more generally anxious about my fellow humans while I was already a pariah in high school. Thanks.
Catcher in the Rye. (life is haaaard.)
Give me a break. Seriously? This is literature? Let me find my emo goth witch high-school friend’s journal. If this shit is literature, then that ought to qualify her for a laureate post somewhere.
The thing about Mr. Collins is that he doesn’t realize he’s an ass-kisser. He’s truly enthralled by all things greater than him.
I instantly thought of *The Mill on the Floss *when I read the thread title. And I read it in college and had a great teacher, still hated it.
I have to defend Northanger Abbey though. Its a parody of the gothic novels that were so popular at the time. I think we are so far removed from that time that fact gets lost.
And yet, plenty of sources in publishing will maintain that Nobels are given for specific works.
Catherine is no genius but she has other good qualities (loyalty, determination and kindness) and Austen seems to have affection for her (she gets to marry my favorite Austen hero after all), so your feelings seem overly hostile in proportion to the work in question.
Naturally some of my all-time favorites are loathed. People always gotta hate on Catcher in the Rye. It’s one of the more convincing portrayals of PTSD I’ve read. I try to read it once a year.
Heart of Darkness I appreciated more for its meaning than its execution. All that angsty crap - The Death of Ivan Illych, Lord of the Flies - make my soul sing.
I hate Beowulf, The Crucible, and Wuthering Heights (blech!)
We also had to read this terrible book called Ethan Frome and it was nothing but endless winter and misery. Not interesting misery, either. The most boring kind.
Ugghh. Came in here to say this or agree with those before me.
Let me say it again. Ugghh. :rolleyes:
I thought Gravity’s Rainbow was tedious (and too long) and Catcher in the Rye was overrated (but fairly short, at least).
Looking at the Modern Library 100 best novels list that they mention, I’ll also add that I thought Tropic of Cancer was boring and The Good Soldier was not particularly memorable.
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand: I wanted to shoot the author and then myself.
I can’t say I’d had a great deal of meaningful life experience when, during my junior year of college, I eagerly read and enjoyed several notorious high school yawn-inducers–Oliver Twist, Look Homeward, Angel, and, of course, The Great Gatsby, Main Street, and Babbitt. I also devoured any of Upton Sinclair’s “Lanny Budd” novels I could get my hands on. I can’t say these last were notorious for eliciting yawns in high schools, because I’m pretty sure that Sinclair’s works of fiction had been thoroughly purged from high school reading lists.
Although I consider myself to have still been very much a kid in those days, perhaps it was the fact that I was living six thousand of miles away from home, in a country where English was a foreign language, that made this reading more appealing to me.
On the other hand, a lot of early American novelists still seem terribly stiff and dry, as if reflecting the early puritanism of New England. I doubt that I would enjoy The Scarlet Letter even today. The same is true of writers like James Fenimore Cooper, whose The Prairie I attempted to read, and found the first sentence almost impossible to parse.
I never understood why A Separate Peace was considered a classic. Though I read it in high school, which may have meant I wasn’t ready for it (I hated Great Expectations in high school, too, but when I read it years later, I discovered it was well worth all the praise it’s been given).
Joyce +1,000,000
Not to worry. Twain himself found James Fenimore Cooper unreadable, mostly because Twain (apparently) considered Cooper to be a *terrible *writer.
Heart of Darkness. Required reading in school, followed by a test. The entire class, including moi, failed the test. Of all the books in the world, that idiot teacher picked THAT thing??? I couldn’t make head or tails of it - opaque, wordy, and deathly boring. Cliff’s Notes For Dummies wouldn’t have helped…We also read The Odyssey, which I ate right up, but my cousin flat-out refused, yes, refused to read it. ? To each his own, I guess.