I found the protagonist in Ishmael to be a dick but I kept reading because I liked the character of Ishmael and I knew the main character would change over the course of the book.
Buffy: Synchronized slaying. Faith: New Olympic category?
'Conversations with Dead People'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Laga - Sep 04, 2008 3:27:23 pm PDT #7241 of 28404
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.
meara - Sep 04, 2008 3:35:36 pm PDT #7242 of 28404
Deena!!! In re: books for Kara, how the heck did we not talk about Roald Dahl??? I mean, really? The Witches? I can't imagine Kara not utterly loving that. Plus half of his characters are wasting away from consumptive type things. Clearly her type of characters, no?
In other terribly ridiculous only vaguely "literary" news, I was walking past Hot Topic today, and saw "Team Jacob" and "Team Edward" shirts. And went "whaaaa?" thinking of celebrities. And then realized they meant characters in the sparkly vampire universe. And rolled my eyes forever.
Ginger - Sep 04, 2008 3:36:35 pm PDT #7243 of 28404
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
At this point I can't remember all the details, but the book I think of instantly is the publishing house director who's a victim in P.D. James' Original Sin. That's the book in which her habit of spending all her time in the heads of people who are not the supposed protagonists began to get really old. Through the thoughts of other people we discover that the dead person was so loathsome that the murderer could be anyone who had ever met the victim. By the time we find out, I was just glad he was dead.
Polter-Cow - Sep 04, 2008 4:20:23 pm PDT #7244 of 28404
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
What, for you as readers, would render a character unsympathetic or unrelatable? And even if a character is unrelatable, what could keep you reading? If you have examples, feel free to share, please.
I just read Galveston, which has two somewhat unsympathetic protagonists. It's not that they're bad people, but they're flawed in very real ways and they're honest with themselves about it.
In that same post, I talk about The Egyptologist, which also has unsympathetic protagonists. Unlike the ones in Galveston, however, they aren't honest about it at all, which is the fun of a book with unreliable narrators.
Barb - Sep 04, 2008 4:33:45 pm PDT #7245 of 28404
“Not dead yet!”
The Egyptologist sounds really fascinating. Talk about a hell of a reading exercise, what with the unreliable narrators.
Polter-Cow - Sep 04, 2008 4:42:13 pm PDT #7246 of 28404
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Oh, it's great. Especially because the actual truth is all between the lines.
Barb - Sep 04, 2008 4:46:09 pm PDT #7247 of 28404
“Not dead yet!”
Is it one of those that you found yourself flipping back pages, to see if you were remembering things correctly and/or going, "Oh hell, it was there all along"? Done well, I love those kinds of books, but I find that so many readers are so "instant gratification" these days, that they have very little patience for allowing a story to unfold.
Polter-Cow - Sep 04, 2008 4:50:51 pm PDT #7248 of 28404
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Is it one of those that you found yourself flipping back pages, to see if you were remembering things correctly and/or going, "Oh hell, it was there all along"?
Well, it was more like flipping back pages and going, "Oh hell, he totally made that up."
Connie Neil - Sep 04, 2008 5:10:30 pm PDT #7249 of 28404
brillig
I have to confess, I hate unreliable narrators. I don't like liars, and I don't like having to second guess everything that's going on. Dazzle me with the convoluted plot and relationships, not with the convoluted perceptions that are telling the story.
Steph L. - Sep 04, 2008 5:14:59 pm PDT #7250 of 28404
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
I have to confess, I hate unreliable narrators. I don't like liars, and I don't like having to second guess everything that's going on.
Two words: Nelly. Dean.
Ye gods, as much as the rest of Wuthering Heights annoys the CRAP out of me (seriously, Cathy? Heathcliff? GET OVER YOURSELVES), I wanted to beat Nelly Dean to death with a shovel.