The Reivers by Wililam Faulkner

[Susan]

I didn't like Light in August that much either, but this one really killed me. I read it on my own when I was in junior high or high school, not for any class (I have to say that so no one thinks I was prejudiced against it going in), and I actually threw it down mid-book and couldn't pick it up again because I was so fed up. It seemed like a mishmash of uninteresting characters and activity with no purpose. It was almost unheard of for me to give up on a book back then but I was so bored and disgusted I couldn't continue. Maybe I was too young to appreciate it back then. I love The Sound and the Fury but I read that when I was right out of college--maybe if I had read it earlier the same thing would have happened. All I know is that to this day it's one of the top two books that comes to mind when someone asks me what my least favorite book is, and it left such a strong bad impression I haven't had the courage to revisit it and give it another try.

[Seizure Romero]

I tripped over Faulkner in high school and I STILL can't get up. In college, I proceeded to jam my foot firmly in mouth by making fun of his writing during a class-- led by a professor who cut her doctoral teeth on My Favorite William. It was a difficult quarter, to say the least. Stream-of-consciousness narrative annoyed the crap out of me then and still does, lo these many years later. I suppose I should give him another chance, and I probably will once I get through the several hundred other books I actually *want* to read.

Hey, at least I didn't shoot it and light in on fire (see "Books Against the Wall" thread, page 11 for ref).