Books I Loathed discussion
Characters Worth Loathing
I have to agree about hating chick-lit "heroines." The main problem I have with them is the fact that they can be perfectly successful in their lives- have a good job, house and plenty of money, but their lives are so incomplete because they don't have a boyfriend. So they make themselves look ridiculous trying to get some guy to like them. It is so pathetic.
That whiny brat out of Catcher in the Rye. Get a fucking grip you obnoxious self-obsessed infantile TWIT. I hated him with the fire of a thousand suns. Holden something? There are characters you love to hate and then there are characters that you just purely and simply hate. This wanker was the latter for me.One character that I KNOW I was supposed to like, but I absolutely could not stand was Aslan out of the Chronicles of Narnia. Why the dickens did all the children love him so much? He was so sanctimonious and arrogant and unbearably smug (possibly unavoidable when you're an allegory for Jesus, granted). I didn't exactly like the White Witch, but I found myself rooting for her in the scenes they were both in, just in the hope that she would make him do something interesting and not so entirely predictable and two-dimensional. I know he's supposed to be two-dimensional (or rather one) since he's pure good and all that, but it didn't stop me wanting to kick his lion face. And the knowledge that if I did he would just forgive me or something further frustrates me.
Robinson Crusoe. What a loser. Why did he have to kill everything he saw, pretty much? It was Robinson of the early part of the novel that I grew to hate, because he'd see a lion and go out of his way to shoot it in the face, when it was posing no threat to him because HE WAS IN A BOAT AND THE LION WAS ON THE SHORE. He never redeemed himself either, with all his anal detailing of minutae that were of no importance.
Raistlin - Dragonlance series...
Hajime in South Of The Border, West Of The Sun (Haruki Murakami). I'm pretty sure he was supposed to be a fairly sympathetic character, but all he seems to care about is what he wants from people, not who they are. This guy is so self-absorbed that when he realizes at the end of the book that from now on (after he's been married for ten years) his role will be to give hope and joy to his wife and kids, it depresses him. Well-written book about the "the one that got away" phenomenon, but damn, I hated that guy.
Characters I loathed? Every single character in "The Corrections." The father is distant and cruel, the mother is needy and hypocrtical, and all three of their grown children are self-absorbed, self-serving and weak. And so is every one else in the book. I understand that a few flaws make characters realistic, but they have to have a few redeeming qualities. I didn't care much for Willie Loman. Even though it's been years since I read "Death of A Salesman," I couldn't see what the tragedy was. Tragic heroes are supposed to be noble but I had no respect for Willie Loman. He wasn't a good father or husband. He encourages his sons to cheat and he's unfaithful to his wife. He was only a mediocre salesman. So why must "attention be paid?"
Also, I've noticed a tendency in thrillers to feature as main characters, hard-drinking lawyers who cheat on their wives and break various laws in persuit of The Real Bad Guy. "King of Lies" by John Hart comes to mind but I've read other books with similar main characters.
I loathed Briony in Atonement. But I think that was to be expected.
The main characters in The Ground Beneath Her Feet, especially Rai. I took me a month to finish the book simply because I hated the narrator so much I could only read it in 30 minute segments.
I didn't loathe these characters, in fact, I liked them despite myself, and them - but they are certainly loathable:Angel Clare from Tess of the d'Urbevilles
Humbert Humbert from Lolita
So I liked them, but they're definitely worth loathing! I can't actually think of any characters I really detested, at the moment. Except for Anita Blake. Ugh.
I have to agree about Harry Potter, at least in the fifth book...He does act like a teenage girl! I never noticed that before, only that I loathed and detested his idiotic behavior throughout the fifth book. Then it got a little better, especially by the seventh one, but he still relied too much on the angsty-orphaned-hero character mold. Also in Harry Potter, I hated all of the Malfoys (from a literary, not personal, perspective) until the 5th and 6th books, when they actually gained some character beyond being cookie-cutter antagonists. Draco, especially, got on my nerves up until then, since he was so obviously nothing more than a foil for Harry. The same thing happened to Snape by that time.
I don't remember the character's name, but she's the dectective or M.E. in two novels by Alex Kava. Can't stand the woman. The thing that bugged me about her was the writer's fault, but the woman is trying to solve the mystery of some horrific murder, meanwhile the writer juxtaposes that plotline with the character having panty-drenching thoughts about the male face in the book. Drove me nuts. Be professional, woman. Solve your crime, then go drop his drawers. I read Alex Kava's first novel and hated this trait so much that I avoided her second novel for a long, long time...but, inevitably, I was in an airport terminal, I had finished the book I had brought along because of an extended flight delay, and I needed something else to make the final jump of the trip. So, I took the chance and bought it. Same thing. Ick.
I absolutely agree on the Harry Potter front. I loved the books in general, but Harry really got on my nerves. He was a complete whiny baby for most of them, when he wasn't being arrogant and irritating. I HATED Ginny Weasley as well. She was so manipulative and pretty-and-she-knows-it. I liked her in the early books but then she had to go and reveal her true character. She was perfect for Harry, though, I'll give Rowling that.
One of the characters I've found most difficult to like is Charlotte Simmons in Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons. I mean, I can totally relate to a vulnerable, naive girl taking off from home for the first time. I mean, I was there. But this girl is so self rightous and self involved that I wanted to give her a solid kick in the brain.
Don't even get me started on Charlotte Simmons! I sympathized with her pretty much right until the end. But the ending! What a terrible and discouraging ending for women everywhere! Tom Wolfe might as well have said "just get a boyfriend, girls, and that's all you'll need to be happy." Seriously, it's a good thing that book flopped, because if it were more popular it would be doing some serious damage to feminism everywhere.
I thought Charlotte Simmons was a fantastic book, and loved the fact that Tom Wolfe took me to a point where I loathed the main character - it's not the point I started at the beginning of the book.Having also read "A Man In Full" and "Bonfire of the Vanities" I've seen that Wolfe tends to give much more depth to his male characters. I think he made a bold move in creating a female lead, and though I don't think he was as successful as, say, Toni Morrison in portraying a female perspective, I don't believe his message was "just get a boyfriend" either.
This is a neat thread. Sometimes a character worth loathing is exactly what a book needs!
Oh I know plenty of (British) boys / men exactly like Harry Potter (minus the magical abilities)... Nothing new for me there!! Unfortunately. I think the character was brillianly created and true to life... Not my favourite in the series, but still. Speaking of British males... my all time most loathsome character is Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. He if someone is moody, proud, insufferable. I have to admit though that my immense dislike of Colin Firth who's portrayed him on the telly (and in the Bridget Jones movies lol) may have added into my hatred for Darcy. Anyhow, cannot stand the brooding bastard!!
Cissy, wow, I think you may have just offended quite a large handful of Mr. Darcy fangirls. I think you are the first person I've ever seen, brave enough to poke at a legend. Bravo for stating such a controversial opinion.One Colin Firth. I may actually agree with you on that. As much as I adore the actor (Just saw Valmont last night....yummy) I've never been completely sold on his Mr Darcy. (hides from all of the veggies about to be thrown at head).
Don: I totally agree with your assessment of Charlotte Simmons. I very much enjoyed the book, and thought that it was Wolfe's intention for us to dislike the character. But man, I really hated her.
Oh I do fear that the fangirls might get mad, too... but I really loathe and despise Mr. Darcy, and have done so ever since I first encountered him, about 17 years ago. I'd hate having to deal with someone as moody and annoying. Thanks for the kind comment!! :)
Don, I'm intrigued that you didn't read the ending of Charlotte Simmons that way. I had thought it was pretty much obvious. I wonder if you re-read the scene at the end if you'd change your mind. You know the scene, the one where Charlotte is watching the basketball game from the bleachers? Where after all of her heartache and misery, she finally feels happiness and fulfillment and above all peace because she knows her place is in the bleachers, cheering on her basketball player boyfriend? Sure, she finally has a part in it all... but her part is to cheer on her man. Maybe I'm just antagonistic but I'll be damned if anyone's going to illustrate to me how women belong in the bleachers as perpetual spectators.
I get what you're saying Mary, I just don't believe that Tom Wolfe is a misogynist; he doesn't really portray his male characters that favorably either. I don't really believe any educated, reasonable person would believe that a woman's place is in the bleachers, just as I don't believe Ice-T was advocating murdering police in "Cop Killer" (OK, I'm dating myself here).
The way I saw the end of Charlotte Simmons is as incredibly sad. Here is this girl who's spent an entire (really long) book trying to show how independant and different she is "I am Charlotte Simmons" she prides herself in being different from everyone else, making her own choices, and then in the end, there she is blending, finding her identity in a crowd of people. She thinks she's special because everyone sees her. But they see her as someone else's girlfriend and she only understands as far as they see her. I kept hoping the character would have a break through and see how silly she is, but Wolfe went more of a different route; Charlotte never does realize her own humanity and stupidy.
I agree with too many people that have posted already:Rabbit/Harry Angstrom, Jay Gatsby, Holden Caulfield, Gomez from The Time Traveler's Wife, Rose of Sharon from The Grapes of Wrath...ickghh.
aaaand now I can't think of any of my own...unless everyone in The Story of The Eye counts--but I don't imagine you're supposed to particularly *care* for those characters, heh.
I can't stand anyone at all in Pride and Prejudice, especially the women. I know it's their culture and they were expected to be that way, but they're a bunch of preppy 19th-century airheads, and I can't stand preppy airheads. I didn't even finish the book because I couldn't stand reading about how obsessive they were about boys, clothes, boys, manners, BOYS...I'm not saying that's a fault of the writing, since they're supposed to be that way. Just that I don't like it at all.
Elizabeth as an "airhead." Wow. I've never heard that accusation made of a woman who loves and consumes literature and has a biting, satirical wit.
Saybaar, is this your first read of P&P? I wonder if you gave P&P time, if you wouldn't have a different take on the book. I completely changed my mind on the characters and the wit behind the dialogue and the way the characters are drawn when I re-read it years later.
August in Water for Elephants - I really loathed that man, I felt so angry when I read about his character and even typing this now I'm getting all tense and it's been ages since I've read it!!
I don't know...it might just be me. I'm certainly not discounting the book's literary value or anyone else's opinions of it. Maybe I should read it again when I'm a sophisticated adult instead of a lowly teenager. :D My friends also say I'm hypercritical of everything and everyone. That might be part of the problem.
Amir (the main character) from The Kite Runner.
Anyone?
Anyone?
Jeff, I can see how you wouldn't like Amir and I bet you're not alone however, funnily enough, I didn't hate him, I just thought he was a bit of a coward but then that's the way he was brought up I guess or not brought up but how his youth made him be like that.
There was a point in The Kite Runner when I thought I would just have to stop listening (I was listening to it on CD). It was bad enough when Amir didn't stick up for his friend (after all, he was a very scared little boy) but when he hid his stuff in his friend's house, I thought, "He is a rat, a stinkin' rat." To avoid being reminded of his own cowardice, Amir had to find a way to get rid of his friend. I started hating Amir at that point. A lot of the dynamics of the relationship between the two fathers and the two sons became clear at the end of the book. I began to understand why Amir felt the way he did. I wouldn't want him for a friend though.
Well, I hesitated to list Amir, because I didn't hate him either.
But the title above is "characters worth loathing," and Amir was — even though we relate to him (maybe because we can relate to him) — quite often loathsome.
But the title above is "characters worth loathing," and Amir was — even though we relate to him (maybe because we can relate to him) — quite often loathsome.
he's not a character, he's an actual person, but, dare i say this?! i hated "richard from texas" in liz gilbert's eat pray love! what a... jerk. (this is not meant to cause an avalanche of comments about this book, which i actually happened to like!) i thought most of what he said to her was demeaning, rude & cruel!
The very first book I read for book group back in '98 was Amos Oz's BLACK BOX. It's a very well-written look at the disintegration (crash and burn, hence the title) of a marriage. But, the characters...couldn't empathize with any of them. I kind of felt sorry for the son when he was little, but even he turns out to be a wimp. The husband was mean and cruel and the wife just went with the flow. You know it's bad when the characters all end up miserable and all you can think is, "Well, good for them."
T. Ray of "The Secret Life of Bees" ... I disliked that man from page one to the very end of the book. The way he abused Lily, how he didn't help Rosaleen, everything.
And I still think he's the one who fired the gun!
August from Water for Elephants was awful but he was a character you weren't supposed to like. I really detested the main character in the Double Bind. I can't remember her name--but she was a mental case, literally, and i couldn't sympathize with her because I found her annoying. anyone else?
There was an interesting thread in a recent Powells.com interview with Lydia Millet (http://www.powells.com/authors/lydiam...) where the author and interviewer start talking about their favorite a****les in literature. Not every loathsome character (or even real-life person) is strictly unpleasant!
Abi- I'm 100% with you on Aslan. Beyond the smug and annoying "goodness", I got a distinct uh oh feeling about him as a kid. The very worst part was the last book where everyone dies in a train accident and is in heaven- except for Susan because she paints her fingernails and flirts with boys. And everyone seemed pretty OK with that.I hate to say it, but there's quite a few times where I wanted to strangle Harry Potter- especially in the last book. I've always maintained that Ron would have been much more amusing in Harry's role. I love the series but oh my GOD does Harry get annoying.
Allie, your flippant misunderstanding of C.S. Lewis as a writer, and of the character of Aslan, and your almost gross generalizations of both, are a bit surprising for one so clearly proud of her abilities as a reader. Perhaps a bit of open-minded study is in order, no?
Actually, I know of some pre-teen and early teen boys who are every bit as emotional and moody as teenage girls and they are very male boys, just not gifted at hiding how they feel.
Danielle, perhaps a study in sarcasm is in your immediate future? Though you certainly have the smugness down. ;) In any case, why is it so offensive to you that I found Aslan a disagreeable character? I've hated CS Lewis's writing style since I was a child and it is not something that has gotten better with age, sadly. I didn't appreciate religion being beaten over my head- regardless of which belief system it was. Obviously I know the point of the final book was just a smidge more in depth than what I was so obviously joking about, but I still find the entire series very overrated. And this is the loathing group, right?
Danielle, Everyone being "OK with it" is pretty much the definition of Heaven, i.e.,
Revelation 21:4 (King James Version)
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
I think Lewis was trying to show that--not tell it.
On the other hand, Rowling tries to show us Harry's bad moods, and I'd like it better if she'd told us "Harry was in a terrible mood and acted like a complete turd, even to his best friends" instead of showing us. For pages and pages.
Holden from Catcher In The Rye. Not only did I not like the book, but hoped that someday I could meet Holden just so I could smack the taste out of his mouth. He was a one trick pony. Everyone is phony, life is phony, this chair is phony.
Oops, sorry, but I can't agree with that one. When I was a teenager, I saw Holden as a conflicted adolescent soul just trying to find himself. When I was a mom, I saw Holden as a poor kid in mourning who runs away but eventually learns to deal with "stuff" - and he does it without resorting to drugs, alcohol or violence. Not such a bad role model, I'd say, despite all the attempts to censure this book down through the years.
The only character that readily comes to mind for me is the Cat (you know, the one in the Hat?). Even when I was a kid, I thought he was a real trouble-making a**hole. I guess I was too much of a "good kid" to be able to relate to all the chaos he caused.
I totally agree with you about Cat. I didn't like that book when I was little because i couldn't get over how inconsiderate he was.
Holy Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's. She's such a flake and a manipulator and gets away with it spectacularly well, which I guess is what pisses me off the most. I have to second whoever said Rabbit from Run, Rabbit. What a selfish prick! And then there's Augusten Burroughs himself in Running with Scissors. Since that's creative nonfiction, I don't know if that counts. Character? Writer? Whatever.
Mrs. Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. She bothers me.John from Keturah and Lord Death.
Ruka from Vampire Knight.
That one girl from Beastly. It starts with an S or something...The one who wanted an orchid for the dance.
The girl from Wake, the one who hates Janie.
Kyle from the Host, but he was an essential character.
Jacob from Twilight. Except he's an important character.
Tokage from Fairy Cube.
Tom from Libba Bray's series.
Shanti from Vampirates.
Pip in Great Expectations. I had to read that last year in year 12 for AS level english. It nearly killed me.Lol, funny thing is i got 120/120 on that exam. I made my english teacher check twice :P
Catherine Earnshaw in WUTHERING HEIGHTS.Pure revolting cock-teasing social-climbing SLAG. She dies the most richly deserved but least painful death in literature.
I hated her with a passion that burns even today, over 20 years after I read that ghastly half of the novel that is soiled with her presence.
I can get into a good nasty character. Love me some Ignatius Reilly, etc. But this miserable Rhymes-With-Bunt is just the lowest of the low, even more so because that Bronte person seems to think so highly of her, and expects me to find her so fascinating.
Books I Loathed
Books mentioned in this topic
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You can slap her for playing a spineless character though, if it makes you feel better.