# The Worst Novelist Ever **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 13, 2018, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-novelist-ever/810493 "2018-03-13T15:59:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-novelist-ever/810493/101 "2018-03-29T21:29:37Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Yeah, I didn’t want to say that, because Internet bluster is dumb, but Sean has really knocked it out of the park with this one, in the “shitty novelist” competition. [Here’s an appalling article on the novel](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sean-penn-bob-honey-who-just-do-stuff-review_us_5ab9a1bee4b008c9e5fa89a2). Get your cringin muscles ready. It’s my own superficial observation but after reading samples of the novel and seeing Penn being interviewed on the TV talkshow circuit, I can’t avoid thinking this is all some type of Kaufmanesque performance art. My assumption is probably way off base though since Penn hasn’t shown signs of having a sense of humor since 1982. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-novelist-ever/810493/102 "2018-03-30T17:07:10Z")
> [@Grumbacher\_Red](#): > > I have given up on 2 books by Toni Morrison, just wretched, unreadable dreck. Thank you. Some years ago my sister-in-law talked me into reading _Beloved_. I finished it but as I said when I handed it back to her, it is a powerful book that puts paid to the myth that the happy little darkies were better off under slavery, but man, is it ever _opaque_. I put it down to my preferred genre being speculative fiction which is more direct. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-novelist-ever/810493/103 "2018-03-30T17:33:11Z")
W. E. B. Griffin I made it through his military series, The Brotherhood of War. It starts with characters in WWII. We see them advance in rank and are commanders during the Korean war. The books varied in quality. Some pretty good and others I barely got through. I began looking at Griffin’s Cop Series. It follows the identical template. We’re introduced to rookie officers. Follow their careers and then they become commanders. The focus shifts to the next generation of cop characters. Griffin cranked out hundreds of books under various names. He wasn’t the worst. But, his books were just barely readable. So much of his writing sounds the same. He obviously reused ideas and character traits in his various books. > **[W. E. B. Griffin](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Griffin)** > > William Edmund Butterworth III (November 10, 1929 – February 12, 2019), better known by his pen name W. E. B. Griffin, was an American writer of military and detective fiction with 59 novels in seven series published under that name. Twenty-one of those books were co-written with his son, William E Butterworth IV. He also published under 11 other pseudonyms and three versions of his real name (W. E. Butterworth, William E. Butterworth, and William E. Butterworth III). > Griffin grew up in New York... ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-novelist-ever/810493/104 "2018-03-30T17:49:11Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Thank you. Some years ago my sister-in-law talked me into reading _Beloved_. I finished it but as I said when I handed it back to her, it is a powerful book that puts paid to the myth that the happy little darkies were better off under slavery, but man, is it ever _opaque_. I put it down to my preferred genre being speculative fiction which is more direct. Yeah…I had to read \*Beloved \*for a writing program I was involved with. Boy, was that a slog. Everybody told me I’d love it and hate the other book we had to read (_The Goldfinch_) but I ended up loving _The Goldfinch_ and not finishing _Beloved_. Maybe I just don’t like “poetic” writing. Get to the damn point, people! 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-novelist-ever/810493.md?page=5)