Allen Horne answers “I am nearly at page 100 and I am really...”

Anne Earley asked this question about Shantaram:

I am nearly at page 100 and I am really not enjoying this book! This is disconcerting as everyone else raves about it! Is it me or is the book? Should I persevere?

Allen Horne You know, I don't care what anyone says about a book. If I like it, who cares and if I don't, who cares? I recently bought Stoner and I find it boring…moreYou know, I don't care what anyone says about a book. If I like it, who cares and if I don't, who cares? I recently bought Stoner and I find it boring and yet it was just published by the Library of America and it's gotten rave reviews. Another example—I believe that Scarlett O'Hara is the greatest female character in all of literature. Most likely this is because it was written by a woman. Others think I'm nuts and many intelligent friends haven't read it. I've read Bovary, Karenina, Archer, I'm talking about sweeping novels and not shorter ones. But male characters, well, starting with Hamlet through Raskolnikov, Pierre and Andrei, Prince Myshkin, Frederic Henry, Prewitt, Huck Finn. Theys are so great that they are bigger than the novels in which they appear, Tom Joad. But women characters, well, there aren't many. Especially in the theater, that is until Shaw and then Williams and Inge and O'Neill. What I'm getting at is, no one agrees with me. No one knows that the only great novel about the Warsaw Uprising was written by the son of Christian missionaries and was born in China. The great novel that has been forgotten. Oh, The Wall is the title. Incidentally Mila 18 copied its style. But of course Leon Uris cannot write characters. He's good on action, somewhat, but human beings, no. I have to add that I am a poet and have a comic view of the world, unlike other poets, unlike any other poets. They are just not hilariously funny. I am. So naturally editors have no idea what I'm doing since they usually have no sense of humor. And, sadly, we live in a time when humor is needed. Desperately needed. Actually if I weren't a humorist in my life and in my writing, I'd probably be institutionalized. Don't laugh, you didn't have my parents. And once you lose track, the farther you go, the farther away you are from your identity. I grew up in the 1950's, the Eisenhower years. Anyway, I'm just venting. I wonder if anyone feels the same?(less)

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