It's been a while since I've checked in to see what's up with the Booking Through Thursday meme. Don't know why. Just summertime laziness, I guess. But this week's topic caught my attention right away: "Name a book or author that you truly wanted to love but left you disappointed. (And, of course, explain why.)"And I guess the reason it popped out at me is that I've actually been having that very problem a lot lately. Probably a result of not being quite as careful as I used to be about which books I choose to read. I could give you a whole list of books I've read in the last few months that didn't live up to my hopes or expectations. But that would take much too long, and probably be really, really boring for both of us. So I'll just stick to one example.
And that would be (please, no drum roll) – The Map of True Places, the second novel by the wonderful writer, Brunonia Barry. Yes, I know everyone else loved it to pieces, but I was just completely let down by it. For many reasons – I had problems with the story itself, with character development, with the writing in general. As I said in my review, I think it might just have been a case of my expectations being too high, after having fallen deeply in love with Barry's first book, The Lace Reader. I suppose following up that little masterpiece was going to be tricky, no matter how talented the author might be.
On the other hand, the book I'm reading right at the moment – The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine – is turning out to be even better than I expected it to be. So I guess you win some, you lose some, right?
I was a little disappointed in The Queen of Palmyra because my expectations were set too high. Oh well - it happens.
ReplyDeleteI can understand expectations being to high. Maybe that was my issue with Time Traverlers Wife.
ReplyDeleteMy BTT
http://teawithmarce.blogspot.com/2010/07/btt-disappointment-in-book-or-author.html
I always find it's a book by a beloved author that lets me down too!
ReplyDeleteFor me, it was Pat Conroy's South of Broad. I couldn't stand half the unbelievable characters. Huge disappointment!
ReplyDeleteC.S. Forester's "Lord Hornblower" blew me away, so I went into my next Hornblower read (Hornblower and the Hotspur) with high hopes. It fell flat for me: I had to work to read that book, making myself work through the pages. That's the most recent disappointment: previous items that fell for me were Star Wars paperbacks that I expected to be exciting, but just seemed tedious.
ReplyDeleteI think high expectations adds or creates disappointments, but that's not all the reader's fault: sometimes authors will produce something noticeably inferior to their previous works. They can't catch lightening in a bottle every time.