The Brothers Karamazov
question
From chore to adore - Books that start off terribly but come on strong at the end.
Travis
Apr 05, 2014 11:56PM
[please excuse the incredibly sappy, self-help-esque topic title, just couldn't resist]
You start reading a new book. You have yet to finished the first chapter when that unmistakable feeling starts to creep up...you're in for another 500 pages of pure literary letdown. Beating back your seasoned inner voice of reason, you somehow find the strength to forge ahead. Against all odds and to your complete and utter surprise, the author somehow manages to transform your previous sense of disappointment and dread into something more closely resembling admiration and satisfaction.
I'm quite certain that most readers have experienced this relatively rare phenomenon at some point during their reading career. For me, the two that stand out are:
- The Brothers Karamazov
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Anyone have any others they'd like to mention? ...both in the interest of discussion and also so that if I ever happen to pick them up, I'll know not to cram them down the garbage disposal just yet.
You start reading a new book. You have yet to finished the first chapter when that unmistakable feeling starts to creep up...you're in for another 500 pages of pure literary letdown. Beating back your seasoned inner voice of reason, you somehow find the strength to forge ahead. Against all odds and to your complete and utter surprise, the author somehow manages to transform your previous sense of disappointment and dread into something more closely resembling admiration and satisfaction.
I'm quite certain that most readers have experienced this relatively rare phenomenon at some point during their reading career. For me, the two that stand out are:
- The Brothers Karamazov
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Anyone have any others they'd like to mention? ...both in the interest of discussion and also so that if I ever happen to pick them up, I'll know not to cram them down the garbage disposal just yet.
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Definitely "Les Miserables" for me. If you can endure the first 50 pages, you will realize it is one of the best books ever written!
I felt that way about a few books myself, but more recently, I thought "The Life of Pi" started out slow. I hung in there and it ended up being a great book. Later on, I saw someone else have that same book in their hand...I asked them what they thought of the book, she said "It is kind of slow going". I advised her to keep reading, it DOES get better!
For me it had to be the Lord of The Rings trilogy plus the The Hobbit prequel. I wish I could enumerate one book at a time but that's how LOTR appealed to me. It was terribly a torture with the slow pace and the language (English isn't my first language and I was in my early phases of learning the language. However as time went by Frodo's segway with Tom Bombadil grew on me and the next thing I know I've read all the four books!
"adore" is probably too strong a word, but Michael Cunningham's "The Hours" comes to mind. I was a little underwhelmed reading it, but liked how he tied the different threads of the narrative together at the end
This is has happened to me multiple times, Crime and Punishment comes to mind. I never thought I would get into it, but then I did and loved every bit of it.
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