What exactly is the definition of literary fiction? Aren't all fiction books literary fiction?

It is amazing how much influence a review can have on my desire to read a book. With limited reading time available, and so many books available, I am very picky about what I am willing to pick up and read. Both Wicked and The Keep are books I was considering....

Yes, the term literary fiction is hard to define. I should have been more specific. By literary fiction I mean fiction that is aimed for a small, intellectual/academic audience. Generally, these works are weak on plots.

If you read fiction in the New Yorker magazine you know what I'm referring to.

Randy

Ophelia wrote:Constance wrote:

I unfortunately had trouble getting into "Heart of Darkness" but I may give it another try

Constance, have you seen the reference Carly gave about the audio version at project Gutenberg?

I'm sure you don't want to miss the discussion about Heart of Darkness.

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/9343

Have you seen the film "Apocalypse Now"?
At this stage we are still discussing the book and I am wondering whether people will want to discuss the film as well.
I'd like to.

I did, thanks for the link Ophelia. I have a tendancy to zone out when listening to books being read to me - I've found it's better for me to read them myself because I can concentrate better. I have a wandering mind

I have not seen "Apocalypse Now" myself, but if people are interesed in discussing it, I'm sure I can pick up a rental copy.

It's really amazing, isn't it? One man's meat is another man's poison, I guess. When I love a book or have just finished one I really enjoyed, I want to shout it to the world - only to find that half the world doesn't care and the other half doesn't agree with me.

I love Dickens - except for A Tale of Two Cities - I just found it too long and I had a difficult time keeping the characters and locations straight in my mind. But read David Copperfield or Great Expectations - terrific stories well told.

Stephen King? Well, I loved him once upon a time so he'll always have a place in my heart. I agree with the person who said Gerald's Game was unreadable - I never did finish it. But he did write Carrie and Misery and 'Salem's Lot and Dolores Claiborne and . . . .

Someone doesn't like Catcher in the Rye; I'm sorry, that's just about blasphemy in my book. Do you know, there are actually people out there who don't think that To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic? Really, there are! And Miss Bronte's Wuthering Heights - even it has it's detractors.

I kid you not! There's just no pleasing some people!

And yet . . . and yet! James Patterson sells very well. So does Norah Roberts. Have there ever been worse (less talented) writers in the English language.? Who? V.C. Andrews, perhaps?

Thank God for John Irving! And thank John Irving, while we're at it, for his wonderful books. I'm sure you'll all agree with me, right?

Ralph

ralphinlaos wrote:Someone doesn't like Catcher in the Rye; I'm sorry, that's just about blasphemy in my book. Do you know, there are actually people out there who don't think that To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic?

Reverse the two titles and you have my opinion! I read Catcher in the Rye the summer after I turned fourteen and kept waiting for something to happen.... When I finished it, I stormed into the kitchen and demanded my mother tell me why people liked it so much. However, in all fairness, I think I should reread it--I'd probably like it better now.

I was also shocked to find my senior year of high school that I really liked both Moby Dick and Heart of Darkness. (I've read HoD, three times, which seems crazy even to me....)

I've tried twice to read Wicked, however, without ever making it past half-way. And I've never had much appreciation for Jane Austin, even growing up in a family who adores her.

I bought a copy of Tolstoy's War and Peace, figuring I should read it to become "well rounded," but it never sustained my interest. That's strange because I have read Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and thoroughly enjoyed it, even though when I pick it up today I wonder how I ever got through it.

Henry James and Grahame Green. Fillistine or Wot ?

I am also in the anti-Moby Dick camp. You may disagree but I find a whole chapter about just how white the whale is to be overkill... and this is from someone who likes symbolism.

Another pretty bad read was Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin. I had to read it for a grad class and I think that is the only reason one would ever pick it up. A classmate of mine renamed it "melmoth the wonder-why-anyone-would-read-this."

Books I can't stand:

Moby Dick....ugh. And most of Hemingway. Especially The Old Man and the Sea. Maybe I have issues with oceans and large fish??

I hated Heart of Darkness as well and was forced to read it in two classes in college.

I had to teach Great Expectations to 9th graders for six years. Those two things, Great Expectations and 9th graders, just don't coexist together at all. It made me hate the book.

I had to teach Lord of the Flies for two years. The kids liked it better than I did. I hated it. I also had to teach Of Mice and Men one year. I hate it with a passion as well. Also The Grapes of Wrath. The only Steinbeck I've ever liked was Cannery Row.

And I've never got through Jane Eyre.

One seriously unreadable classic for me was Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In fact anything by Samuel Taylor Coleridge puts me to sleep - snore city. I also didn't like Catcher in the Rye, but will fully admit that it is a classic.