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overrated novelists
Which (contemporary) novelists do you think are really overrated / overhyped? For me, in ascending order, it would be:
1) Ian McEwan
2) Zadie Smith
3) Jonathan Safran Foer
With all three, I don't understand why they are hailed as geniuses (though in Smith's case it's something to do with being beautiful and ethnic and a Cambridge graduate), but McEwan is the absolute worst. He may have been quite edgy and dark when he started, but now he's churning out the most pompous, bourgeois, tedious twaddle I've ever read. A typical sentence of his would be something like: 'Hermione told Sebastian that Victor was falling in love with Cecily; then she went to use the bath salts her goddaughter had bought her as an engagement present before things had gone wrong with Quentin'.
Anyone else?
1) Ian McEwan
2) Zadie Smith
3) Jonathan Safran Foer
With all three, I don't understand why they are hailed as geniuses (though in Smith's case it's something to do with being beautiful and ethnic and a Cambridge graduate), but McEwan is the absolute worst. He may have been quite edgy and dark when he started, but now he's churning out the most pompous, bourgeois, tedious twaddle I've ever read. A typical sentence of his would be something like: 'Hermione told Sebastian that Victor was falling in love with Cecily; then she went to use the bath salts her goddaughter had bought her as an engagement present before things had gone wrong with Quentin'.
Anyone else?
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I hadn't thought of McEwan like that, i quite enjoyed most of his stuff i have read (and i have read most of it) but i just cannot get into Atonement at all......your description fits it perfectly.
I did like the Comfort Of Strangers immensely though. I think i read it in one sitting.
I did like the Comfort Of Strangers immensely though. I think i read it in one sitting.
I think you've got good taste alba.
Will Self's a bit overrated IMO. Oh yeah, and Martin Amis.
Craig Brown 'Diary' in Private Eye, parody of Amis:
It was not until the year AD 2000 that I discoverbubbled exactly how wrong Hitch was, and that Iosif Stalin -- Walrus Whiskers -- was in fact not nice at all.
Let me repeat that.
Not.
Nice.
At.
Allipegs.
Will Self's a bit overrated IMO. Oh yeah, and Martin Amis.
Craig Brown 'Diary' in Private Eye, parody of Amis:
It was not until the year AD 2000 that I discoverbubbled exactly how wrong Hitch was, and that Iosif Stalin -- Walrus Whiskers -- was in fact not nice at all.
Let me repeat that.
Not.
Nice.
At.
Allipegs.
Right on, naivesincerity, Martin Amis is a complete knob. Craig Brown did a hilarious pastiche of Amis in Private Eye a few months back, some of it ran:
Amis shuddered to his desk, desky in its deskiness. What to write? To write, what? Write what to? To what write? In his novelist’s loins, he yearned to be taken seriously. To be taken. Seriously. To be taken, again and again, but seriously. But how? He tried writing one word, then another. Word-word-word. Soon the words were piling up, like piled-up things in a pile…’
And when he went to the toilet he couldn't call it toilet but 'Ablutionsville, USA'.
Amis shuddered to his desk, desky in its deskiness. What to write? To write, what? Write what to? To what write? In his novelist’s loins, he yearned to be taken seriously. To be taken. Seriously. To be taken, again and again, but seriously. But how? He tried writing one word, then another. Word-word-word. Soon the words were piling up, like piled-up things in a pile…’
And when he went to the toilet he couldn't call it toilet but 'Ablutionsville, USA'.
the_alba
Right on, naivesincerity, Martin Amis is a complete knob. Craig Brown did a hilarious pastiche of Amis in Private Eye a few months back, some of it ran:
Amis shuddered to his desk, desky in its deskiness. What to write? To write, what? Write what to? To what write? In his novelist’s loins, he yearned to be taken seriously. To be taken. Seriously. To be taken, again and again, but seriously. But how? He tried writing one word, then another. Word-word-word. Soon the words were piling up, like piled-up things in a pile…’
And when he went to the toilet he couldn't call it toilet but 'Ablutionsville, USA'.
Amis shuddered to his desk, desky in its deskiness. What to write? To write, what? Write what to? To what write? In his novelist’s loins, he yearned to be taken seriously. To be taken. Seriously. To be taken, again and again, but seriously. But how? He tried writing one word, then another. Word-word-word. Soon the words were piling up, like piled-up things in a pile…’
And when he went to the toilet he couldn't call it toilet but 'Ablutionsville, USA'.
Craig Brown is hilarious!the_alba
Weird, we just posted the Craig Brown thing at the same time!
I remembered reading it at the time, so I googled it.
I have London Fields, but i am yet to read it. That description reminds me a bit of Glen Duncan 
Wow, I thought someone would jump to McEwan's defence with lots of bullcrap about how he's the most brilliant 'state-of-the-nation' writer of the last 50 years. But it seems we're all agreeing - he's really weak and overrated. This must mean that the only people who think he's any good are his promo staff, ie. the weekend broadsheets. Shame on them! They are the reason people keep buying his godawful books!
I don't know, i think his books are a bit hit or miss. I didn't enjoy Saturday and i can't get into Atonement, but the Comfort Of Strangers and Enduring Love were good.
Enduring Love, his best, is all right - the opening is good, and some of the pseudo-psychological theories he invents. But the bath salts of the goddaughter and the fat globes of oh-so-middle-class mozzerella kind of spoil it. Amsterdam and Saturday are undoubtedly his worst, I think. Haven't read Comfort of Strangers!
I ...ahem... enjoyed Atonement.
*flinches*
*flinches*
Dan Brown!
Peter Carey's an interesting one. I kind of WANT to like him, have tried to read bits, but it just is too much hard work. Can't figure if he's overrated or if I'm not getting it.
^^ Even the farcical, unconvincing-in-the-extreme bit at the end where Daisy recites Matthew Arnold to get out of being raped?! That gets the prize for most pretentious piece of crap ever written.
naivesincerity, I see your point about Peter Carey. Even Oscar and Lucinda, which got so much acclaim, really ran out of oxygen half way through. Some of the writing is good though - the opening was brilliantly done I thought. 'My Life as a Fake' was pretty poor though. Maybe I should try the Kelly Gang - have you read that?
naivesincerity, I see your point about Peter Carey. Even Oscar and Lucinda, which got so much acclaim, really ran out of oxygen half way through. Some of the writing is good though - the opening was brilliantly done I thought. 'My Life as a Fake' was pretty poor though. Maybe I should try the Kelly Gang - have you read that?
the_alba
naivesincerity, I see your point about Peter Carey. Even Oscar and Lucinda, which got so much acclaim, really ran out of oxygen half way through. Some of the writing is good though - the opening was brilliantly done I thought. 'My Life as a Fake' was pretty poor though. Maybe I should try the Kelly Gang - have you read that?
naivesincerity, I see your point about Peter Carey. Even Oscar and Lucinda, which got so much acclaim, really ran out of oxygen half way through. Some of the writing is good though - the opening was brilliantly done I thought. 'My Life as a Fake' was pretty poor though. Maybe I should try the Kelly Gang - have you read that?
No. I started trying to read 'Jack Maggs' the convict one. We have my life as a fake and Oscar and Lucinda, they seemed a bit fancily worded for my tastes.
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