The Corrections
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why the one star?
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message 101:
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Dennis
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rated it 5 stars
Nov 22, 2013 06:14AM
I'm with you Nick...
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Well said, Darwin8u. Art, like Nature, is a duality. There's stuff that's beautiful and attracts us and other stuff that is ugly and repels us. You can't just look at one half of this duality and dismiss the rest.Darwin8u wrote: "Barbara wrote: "That's exactly it..I didn't connect with or like any of the characters who were all extremely dysfunctional."
Hell, let's just give Crime and Punishment one star becau..."
I wish he would get out of the damn way from time to time and let me interpret the characters myself. At no point did I feel like my mind had room to move inside the story. I've never read an author that wanted to hold my hand more than JF. He seems not only to want to enter his characters, but to enter the reader as well, which is creepy and arrogant.And the entire time I was reading the book I had trouble forgetting that he is, or at least acts like, a pompous ass.
Martin wrote: "It was tedious! TEDIOUS! If I wanted to hear a bunch of family bickering and whining, I'd invite my own over."well, then write something about :)
Give it a chance. i read up to the first 100 pages, and was annoyed by all the characters, particularly Enid, the matriarch. However, I kept reading, and fell in love with the book. Give it 250 pages before you bail on it.
Martin wrote: "S wrote: "Give it a chance. i read up to the first 100 pages, and was annoyed by all the characters, particularly Enid, the matriarch. However, I kept reading, and fell in love with the book. Give ..."Well,you certainly have tenacity.I loved his next book, Freedom (which I'm guessing you skipped), and it's a shame that he only writes a novel once a decade.
Freedom may be predictable, but what happens to the engagement ring is not.
The Shayne-Train wrote: "Cy wrote: "Stop looking for friends in the book you read. The characters are the story in this one. It's the Gatsby of Generation X."Did you really type that? For REAL really? This makes me hate ..."
Yes, I REALLY just did. And what's wrong with that statement? Gatsby captured the free-wheeling spirit of the 20s yet reflected on its moral emptiness. The Corrections captures the end of the 90s boom, the friction between Gen X and their Boomer/Silent parents, and the malaise and financial uncertainty of the 2000s. It's a novel of a generation, of a time period.
For real really.
Barbara wrote: "That's exactly it..I didn't connect with or like any of the characters who were all extremely dysfunctional."Get older, or have parents get older then read it again.
S wrote: "Martin wrote: "S wrote: "Give it a chance. i read up to the first 100 pages, and was annoyed by all the characters, particularly Enid, the matriarch. However, I kept reading, and fell in love with ..."I loved FREEDOM. I liked PURITY, but it wasn't on the same level as his earlier books. Who should play Tom and Annabel if there's ever a film version? They are by far the most interesting characters in the book.
Easytarget wrote: "Barbara wrote: "That's exactly it..I didn't connect with or like any of the characters who were all extremely dysfunctional."Get older, or have parents get older then read it again."
I like that: "get older". Yes, when your parents get older you will really relate to the book.
Darwin8u wrote: "Barbara wrote: "That's exactly it..I didn't connect with or like any of the characters who were all extremely dysfunctional."Hell, let's just give Crime and Punishment one star becau..."
A punch in the gut would be a welcome reprieve from being pelted with pettiness, word after word, sentence after tedious sentence, page after page. I have been determined to finish this book; rarely in my decades of reading have I ever just tossed a book aside. Once begun, it seems unfair to judge before finishing. It would be rather like having an opinion of the Mona Lisa by examining only her ear. However, I am ready to make an exception. A brilliant description of a rusted wire fence is still just a rusted wire fence.
So I'm older, have had kids, and still couldn't get through the book. When I finally gave up (an oddity for me) I realized I didn't care enough about any of the plot line to continue. What am I missing?
