Here's a quote from a blog I've just read, by someone I've never heard of:
...in 2008, only one book truly went beyond bad and into the realm of books whose awfulness deserves to be enshrined and cried out from the mountaintops. So, the very worst read of 2008 was: The Blue Place...
It goes on at some length. Aud, apparently, is a Mary Sue character, she's humourless, and every single character is a cliche. I marvel at how differently readers can interpret novels. I also marvel at the inability of some readers to miss the humour in the book. It's mystifying. Still, as Kelley says, "if everyone had taste there wouldn't be a word for it."
Posts
Ummm, wow. Did you kick her cat?
ReplyDeleteWell, you know what opinions are like *shrug, everyone has one.
Julie
oh dear. well... you inspired a great passion in a reader. perhaps not the passion you hoped for, but you certainly made an impression.
ReplyDeletethe washington post seems to disagree with her, alas.
julie, yep, everyone's got one :)
ReplyDeletemoonrat, someone said to me a few years ago, after reading amazon.com reviews of my work, wow, they either love you or hate you, don't they? It's true. Readers tend to, ah, feel strongly. Yet responses like this are still utterly startling to me, as puzzling as someone looking at a goat and saying, "Nice kitty!"
*snort* She sure did hate it, didn't she?
ReplyDeleteIn the spirit of sweetie solidarity, here's my Worst Review Evah, a 1-star review of Solitaire from amazon.com:
"I'd rather read the entire Robert Ludlum collection in one sitting than read this book again. Have you ever been trapped with somebody who won't quit talking (at a dinner, a party, or whatever) and who thinks she is deep, smart, and interesting, but is just the opposite? If you have, this book will bring back that experience. I found the writing to be on par with that of a good high school student. For example, "She closed her eyes and let the noise of Solitaire spin around her, a tidal pool of words and glassware and background music, voices breaking against her like waves on a reef." Maybe I was just in a bad mood when I read this, but I really hope this is not what passes as a "tour de force" today."
Take that, New York Times!
John Scalzi posted some of his worst reviews and challenged other authors to do the same earlier this year. So it looks like you two have your entries
ReplyDeletehttp://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/04/24/mmmm-one-star-rific/
hey, beautiful, thank you. I bet reviewers at fine journals all over the world are just fainting with shame at how wrong wrong wrong they've been about our work...
ReplyDeletejohn-nicholas, yes, see my April post, amazon one-star meme.
Reviews can certainly confuse at times, I wondered if I read the same book as Ms. Nussbaum.
ReplyDeleteKelley, I just borrowed Solitaire from my library yesterday, I hope to start reading your "tour de force" this weekend, I am sure it will be a most enjoyable read. :)
Needless to say, so I will say it any way, who pissed in her cornflakes? I hate when people think their being critical when they're only putting down.
ReplyDeleterory, that book will knock your socks off.
ReplyDeletebarbara, clearly my novel offended her in some way. After conversation with someone who has seen the reviewer do this kind of thing before, we decided it's because Aud isn't *her* kind of Mary Sue character, that is, the reviewer can't relate to Aud in any way. Poor thing.
Barbara, you're right...the "review" wasn't much of a review at all.
ReplyDeleteReviews that are like this are really more about the reviewer than whatever they're reviewing.
The Blue Place knocked my socks off...and I'm still looking for them.
.wink.
janine, reviewers like this should work at Helga's House of Pain--though I imagine, given the utter lack of empathy, they'd be crap even at that.
ReplyDeleteLOL. That Asking the Wrong Questions site is awesome, it cracked me up. I'm bookmarking it. Nicola, I hope you also had a good laugh.
ReplyDeleteYou know how grateful I am that Mr. Pullman wrote His Dark Materials. Oh, my face hurts from an overdose of *grin* while I read this condensed version of HDM. And the comments are priceless (note spelling):
---quoted text begins---
Book 1:Nothing, but pretentous crap
Book 2:Nothing, but more pretentous crap
Book 3:Nothing, but pretentous crap. Hold on, oh wait... they're fucking... now, wait... you mean to tell me I read 1000 pages just so they can fuck under a tree!?! Hot damn, I wanna kick your ass...
Philip Pullman is a talentless hack.
---quoted text ends---
Wow, authoritative and smart. ;-)
Yep, life is funny--if you allow it :)
ReplyDelete