My Book Club Doesn't Like Me . . .

good choices, but you know opinions and taste often differ on great extremes.

Let them read Oprah books, for that is what they deserve.

And that's why book clubs are tough and a lot like school. You read things you don't necessarily like or get or you love it and no one else does.

That passage is beautiful btw.

you all three make me feel very supported. :) jim--they actually acknowledged to me that even though they didn't like it, they appreciated having to read something they never would have picked for themselves, so i guess i'm ok with that.

nat--let us hope and pray it never gets that bad! although in the beginning, oprah picked pretty decent books. it was only later that she started picking all those gooey novels.

jag--you're so right. i think the thing that bothered me was that they didn't even seem to want to hear what i had to say, because they just didn't care. oh well! that passage is pretty representative of the way he writes, i'd say. maybe you would like this book! :)

I thought that was a beautiful passage. I also have a hard time finding people to discuss books with, so I feel for ya. I

thanks, greer. they've been more willing to discuss other books we've read, it just seems to be the ones i pick that they don't get into! oh well. :)

A novel needs more than beautiful passages. It needs conflict, plot, and character development to sustain readers' interest. This novel begins strongly but then meanders for many chapters. Most readers hate this and come to resent the writer.

The passage you're so taken with seems more emotive than evoking to me. It wallows in its own beauty instead of making me feel the same emotion the writer felt when he wrote it.

i can see what you're getting at about the novel meandering, but after reading the whole book i appreciated that he took so many angles to look at the same thing. i knew very little about what happened in czechoslovakia during the war and so what might seem like his repetitive storyline actually put the love story in context for me.

the other point, about the passage being more emotive than evoking, well, this entire book resonated with me. maybe because i had a personal connection to it--emotionally--i liked it better. that passage in particular spoke to a lot of things that i've been dealing with in my own head, my own heart, so it stood out to me as being particularly true.

honestly, i don't care that my book club friends didn't like the book so much as they didn't even want to discuss it. so thank you for actually talking about it with me! :)

People do have different taste, and it doesn't happen often that many people like the same book, that it resonates with many. But every once in a while a book comes along that does--that's a true masterpiece.

You wrote that "after reading the whole book i appreciated that he took so many angles to look at the same thing." Here's my musings and questions to you in regards to this comment:

1. Many readers do not need to look at the samee thing from many angles. They get bored when they encounter repetition.

2. If you picked up this book without a cover and began reading, not knowing who wrote it, would you read to the end? In other words, was your attention primed by the knowledge that it had gotten good reviews?

3. Did you know when you were reading this book of Slouka's position within creativing writing academia? Is him being a professor of Creative Writing something that lend credibility to his work as you were reading it?

4. Would a Joe Shmoe submitting such a manuscript to Slouka's agent get noticed or would he get a form rejection slip in the mail.

Looking forward to your replies.