Tender isn't the night.

[davywavy]

One of the problems of having spent my formative years gamely reading all of the world's great literature that I could get my hands on is that these days I'm having to make do with the world's ho-hum literature instead.
This thought struck me with force this morning as I was looking for somehting to read on the train to work and my eye alighted on the half-read copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the night which has been sitting by my bed for some weeks. Like the copy of magical beasts and where to find them in Harry Potter, it squats there, malevolently daring me to try and read it, glaring vilely and promising dire retribution should I so much as pick it up.
For the life of me I can't understand how Fitzgerald has got the reputation he has (apparently he's a regular on A level English Lit reading lists); his prose is supremely unengaging, his characterisation repetitive and leaden, and his preoccupations (not matter how rich, successful, and pretty you are you'll never actually be happy. So ner) bloody irritating. This book reminds me in some ways of Yukio Mishima's Forbidden Colours; in that I'm bloody well not going to let it beat me, so I'll put my head down in a determined way and make it to the end if it kills me.

This leads me to the question I'm asking of you lot today; who, in your opinion, is the most over-rated "great" author? Is it perhaps Dickens, whose tiresome 'jokes' and supremely punchable characters are so beloved of English teachers everywhere? Perhaps it is Anton Chekov, who could do with just lightening up? Or perhaps someone more modern like Will Self, who you just want to punch and punch and punch until he takes the hint and stops? Let me know your thoughts.

Oh, and if anyone can recommend anything good to read I'd be grateful. I've got bloody Albert Camus next unless anyone can save me.

Comments

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I have placed an order for some Neal Stephenson today, as it happens. I haven't read any but so many people have recommended it to me that I decided to have a go - huzzah for amazon.

Michael Marshall Smith - I read "one of us" and hated it; the cop-out ended caused my blood pressure to rise a good dozen points. I certainly would have to be convinced to read any more...

[stickette.livejournal.com]

I have to agree that endings are not MMS's forte - I didn't find the ending to One of Us very satisfying either but then the journey can often be better than the destination :). Maybe give Spares a go before you dismiss him entirely.

[hiromasaki.livejournal.com]

Which Neal Stephenson? I've not been much of a reader since my much, much younger days, but a friend loaned me Cryptonomicon, and it's got me hooked in a way I can't remember since before sometime in '95. I wish I read more, but there's so many great books that I haven't read, and so little time to suffer through the poor ones to find the better ones. Plus my neck's all wonky, and that's just a pain in the ass.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's cryptonomincon that I've got on order. So many people had recommended it that I couldn't say no in the end.