This is beyond me

Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse

Having chosen my three books by favourite authors at the library this week I picked up my usual random selection. The cover of this offering proudly annouced it had won a major literary prize and contained glowing accolades from the major press. To me the book was rubbish! I read about twenty minutes of this garbage and that was more than enough. The author??????  put The chapter numbers  not for a start in sequential order, very avant garde, however after a few pages of poor plot the author stops to explain the chapter numbers. What is beyond me is that if the hype is genuine I have no idea what a good book is and should cease writing

Carol

Was it a mainstream publisher, or a small press?

Crazy Horse

Pretty mainstream, listed in U.K. Australia, N.Z. & S.A. I had better not give names ad I?

Jenny

Oh go on, CH - give us a clue!

richt

You're not talking about 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' (or something like that - why is it you can never lay your hands on something when you need it?)? By Mark Haddon.
I have a vague memory that that had non-sequential Chapter numbers.

Stan2

I enjoyed reading 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'. Remember that this was written from the view-point of someone with a  disabilty that gave him a different view of the world. 

Isabella King

Do you have to search out the chapters to read in order or plunge in and take them as they come - and what exactly is the point?

TaffetaPunk

I was thinking the same - the chapters are all prime numbers, as I recall.  I thought it was a brilliant book, personally.  However, if it wasn't this book, I apologise :o)

Jenny

I thought MH managed to portray the boy's thought processes very cleverly. The section where he's at the station was brilliantly written.

If CH was referring to that book, it proves yet again that we all have different tastes. One of my friends hated the highly-praised "Vernon God Little" so much that after reading a few pages she gave the book away.

megrose

Just had a look at my copy of 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' and the chapters are indeed headed with prime numbers.  This is because the character, who is autistic, likes prime numbers.  I thought it was a brilliant book - very touching.  But you're right Jenny, we all have different tastes.  If I find it difficult to get into a book, I usually stop and read something else - life's too short.

Nefertari

I didn't like that book either but my daughter loved it.

Carol

I didn't read it, but I heard it on a Book at Bedtime on Radio 4, after it had come out.
He did portray the thought processes, and the way of reasoning autistic children have.
Living with it every day as I do, I couldn't have read it. As I know I would have been screaming at some of the adults portrayed in it.
Another parent at school, did read it, and was really surprised.
She saw things in the book that she recognised (from things that her daughter had recounted about the school day, as she has gone through school with my younger ASD son).
I've heard a few people say they've abandoned Vernon whatsit.

amboline

I loved "Dog in the Night-Time" and found it very accessible despite the quirks such as unusual chapter numbering. I found it all the more effective because of the insight it gave me into the way somebody whose brain works very differently to mine would actually see the world. From those I've spoken to who have experience of working/caring for people with autism, the voice seems to be pretty authentic, even with the occasional inconsistencies.

Jenny: it may interest you to know that "Vernon God Little" was recently found to be the Most Unfinished Book in the UK. It defeated me too :)

Jay Mandal

If you liked 'The Curious Incident ...', try 'Born on a Blue Day'.

Betsie

Has anyone battled with Samuel Beckett and/or James Joyce?

Carol

I did James Joyce when I was a teenager. I didn't have a problem with him.

Anyanka

Oh dear, 'Vernon God Little' has just been picked as the next task for my reading group; I found a copy in an Oxfam shop which has a lot of candlewax (well, I HOPE it's candlewax) spilled on the cover but looks fine inside. The above-stated fact that it's one of the most un-read books may explain that.

My entire family read & loved 'dog in the nighttime' by the way; both teen daughters and even the husband who is not a great fiction reader. I particularly liked the way the author let us see Christopher's world through his own eyes, without mediation or explanation from the outside. I could completely identify with the boy's sense of overwhelmed-ness in the London train station, for example.