The other day one of the Guardian book bloggers posted about how a bad first experience with an author can ruin you for anything else the author has ever written. In the Guardian blogger’s case, it is A.S. Byatt. He had to read Still Life at college and it didn’t go well. He tried reading Byatt’s most recent just to see if time and experience would make for a different experience, and it didn’t.
This got me thinking if I had an author like that. At first I thought James Joyce, but I overcame my fear and bad experience about two years ago and actually enjoyed the Joyce book that tortured me in high school (Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man). Nothing else came to mind. Then I found myself in an odd moment, wishing I had an author I could name so I could write a big long blog post about it (this is what happens mid-week when I run out of book reading news and start grasping at straws for a topic). I scolded myself for being silly. But I have been wondering ever since if there isn’t an author hiding behind the shrubbery in my mind, afraid of being exposed?
I don’t want to fabricate one by any means, but it seems like there should be an author that has been ruined because of a traumatic experience with one of his or her books. Perhaps I have buried the dreadful experience somewhere and a skilled book therapist could help me dredge up the suppressed memory. Or maybe I am just lucky to have never suffered such a trauma?
Is there an author you can’t read because of a bad experience?
I had to read The Citadel by A.J. Cronin in high school and I hated it so much that I have an aversion to even picking up one of his books. I haven’t even looked at one since.
I know I’ll lose all credibility as a literary person when I say this, but I must confess that I’ve avoided Virginia Woolf ever since I had to read Mrs. Dalloway in college. I keep thinking I should give her another chance, especially when I see quotes from her writing that I like, but then I remember how I hated reading that book. Then again, maybe my experience would be like yours with Joyce. (And my own with Joseph Conrad and Heart of Darkness.)
Sadly, it’s Orwell for me. I know, I know–it’s pathetic. But reading Animal Farm in English class in high school has resulted in me breaking out in hives at the thought of reading his work. I WANT to read 1984–the play was fantastic, I know the book could only be better–but I just keep thinking of that class…
The worst part of it all is that I KNOW it’s because of a terrible class (AKA teacher that I never learned much from), and I still can’t bring myself to read anything by him. Maybe I should add a few of his books to my to-read list.
Also, does Nora Roberts or VC Andrews count? Not really a bad experience, just… well, not exactly worthwhile reading.
I don’t think I have one author that’s been ruined for me, or like you, I’ve sublimated it. But I will say that in school Willa Cather (being a wonderful Nebraska author) was so shoved down our throats as being an author We Must Read, that I pretty much ignored her until I was well out of college. I finally read O Pioneers and decided she was actually pretty good. Now I plan on reading more of her work and am looking forward to it. I put it down to the contrariness of being a teenager. Thank goodness that’s long since passed!
Joyce Carol Oates. I read a book or two of hers when I lived in Finland and had very little choice, and I really hated them. Now I really can’t even look at her books. I think I have a few others that I can’t think of now. I actually liked Portrait of an Artist and attempted Ulysses later on, but haven’t been able to decipher it. I feel like an idiot, but it’s beyond me for now.
Traumatic events have not affected my reading. Quite the opposite. I was very, very fortunate. My entire life has centered around science (biology, chemistry, math). I did have one teacher, a frumpy middle school teacher that brought literature alive for me.
On a whim, to please that eighth grade teacher, I “volunteered” to “ruin” a summer by attending a summer course in Romanticism at St Olaf College. There I was introduced to a world that was wonderful but confusing. The book I remember most from that course was Wuthering Heights.
After that 8th grade experience, I returned to science, not once taking any literature course, except as required for my liberal arts college degree (with a double major in chemistry and biology), and subsequently a doctorate’s degree in a field related to science.
Now, 30-some years later, I have left the world of science, except for occasional recreational reading, and have been reading voraciously to catch up on all that I missed for the past 30 years.
There are a few authors who I may not enjoy, but it is more rewarding to write about the ones I have enjoyed. I adore Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, Graham Greene, Sylvia Plath, Marianne Moore, Ernest Hemingway, Edmund Wilson, Anais Nin, Henry Miller, Hunter S. Thompson.
I re-typed the entire Mrs Dalloway in free verse form, when I realized it was a prose poem, and so much more.
I am typing the entire Ulysses by James Joyce, if for no other reason, to ensure I truly read it. It is very hard going, but immensely rewarding.
Literature, good literature, should be read very, very slowly, literally savoring every line.
I guess that would be my one traumatic experience: being told to speed-read great literature. Maybe in college with so many competing demands one has to speed read to survive, but not in life.
I love your site. Thank you for your posting, and never worry about lacking something to write about; we can always read your earlier posts.
I’ve been fairly lucky that my second chances often go better than the first ones. Steinbeck is a great example of this. I hated the horrible “The Pearl” (eighth grade required reading) and was convinced I’d hate everything else by him. Then I read “Of Mice and Men” (ninth grade required reading) and discovered an excellent book. And then “The Grapes of Wrath” and “East of Eden” (both splendid). So I was rescued.
I think I am with Teresa here as I feel I ought to read more Virginia Woolf but sadly ‘To the Lighthouse’ was the one that put me off. I am sure that there were other books that had a bad effect, but I remember thinking’is there a point of this book?’
I would be delighted to hear a view from somebody for whom it was inspiring to tell me what I am missing!
Firstly, I have to say I loved Still life and think Byatt’s short stories are a wonderful introduction to her work.
I have two authors whom one bad experience has put me off.
Having read and hated Lady Chatterley’s Lover, I’ve started other novels by D H Lawrence (eg Women in Love, The Peacock, Kangaroo) and just never been able to get on with, or even finish them. I like his poetry though.
Like Teresa, I was underwhelmed by The Heart of Darkness and can’t bring myself to read anything else of Conrad’s.
To Teresa re Virgina Woolf, I’d say try A Room of One’s Own or The Common Reader to gain affection for her writing and maybe overcome your aversion.
Ayn Rand! I tried reading The Fountainhead and hated it. I can’t even stand watching the movie starring Patricia Neal and Gary Cooper – two actors I usually love watching on the screne. I also tried reading Ulysses when I was a student at UCD in Dublin. I was so confused by it and felt so stupid, I never developed a desire to read anything else by him.
Typo: “screen.”
Don’t want to hog the comments, but I have to add one more. Getting through The Story of Edward Sawtelle was so awful (I’m the only person on the planet who hated it) I’m surely ruined for anything Wroblewski may write in the future.
I had this kind of experience with a book by Ann Packard – The Dive from Clausen’s Pier. It’s probably not fair but I’ll avoid anything she’s ever written because that book annoyed me so much. Usually though, I’m pretty fair, I like getting an opinion of an author after several books…
Jonathan Carroll’s White Apples was so laughably bad, I don’t think I’d ever try him again.
To Bob:
1. Virginia Woolf’s novels are autobiographical. One will appreciate her more if one reads one or two biographies of her.
2. She was not university schooled and not well traveled; she could only write about family….and she talks about that….that up until now the epics were about military men, kings, queens, but she felt there were stories of families that needed to be told. She was very, very close to her family; possibly pathologically close to her family; Vanessa was practically a twin sister; she was deeply affected by deaths of men/women in her family
3. Her writing is prose poetry. I think one reads Virginia Woolf on at least three levels:
a) autobiographical; somewhat rewarding
b) prose poetry — just the fun of reading slowly, but not really caring about the story; there generally is no story in the conventional sense; certainly no plot; most rewarding way to read Virginia Woolf if one understands it’s the writing. Sort of like a French meal in which the portions are very, very small, but very, very delicious
c) the metaphors of family for world events; best understood by reading critical analyses of her works.
Maybe one develops a “taste” for Virginia Woolf. I think her works need to be read very slowly and chapters thought about overnight before proceeding. Not for speedreading. I only enjoyed her after I reached age 56; had had many life experiences (particularly with regard to relationships); and, after improving my reading skills by reading more than I had ever read before.
To Bruce:
I really like Virginia Woolf and have read a few of her novels and, as you, have appreciated them at various levels. However, I’m a bit surprised by you advancing that her novels are autobiographical. They might be inspired by her contemporaneous world and her life but I wouldn’t call them autobiographical. I’m curious to know how you came to that conclusion?
To answer the question, the first author coming to my mind is Nathaniel Hawthorne. It took me over a year to finish “The Scarlet Letter” not so long ago, and I’ve sworn never to read anything by him again. And as I have seen her mentioned in another post I would say Marguerite Dumas. Although, it was a long time ago that I read one of her novel and I would now give her another chance.
I also get frustrated when the opposite occurs…when I find a favorite author and then they disappoint me by writing a book that doesn’t meet my expectations!
I should have read D.H.Lawrence before I knew anything about him. By the time I started Lady Chatterley’s Lover, I was so disgusted that I had absolutely no patience for the book.
I’ve disliked John Steinbeck since eighth grade, when I was forced to read “The Pearl.” A few years later, I tried to read “East of Eden,” but couldn’t even get past the first page. I outright refused to read “Of Mice and Men” in high school. (I read it a few years ago.) I finally read “East of Eden” last year, and it was like literary waterboarding. It was unenjoyable to the extreme. I can usually stomach authors I don’t like, such as Philip Roth, but Steinbeck suffocates me. And all of this bias goes back to eighth grade and “The Pearl.”
This is why I came up with the idea of giving every author at least two chances and have promptly never done so. I just can’t seem to get around to reading another Elizabeth Bowen (despite owning two) after my bad experience with Friends and Relations. And I can’t fathom spending money on another Chester Himes book. And you are such a much better blogger than I. You may have noticed that if I can’t think of anything to write about mid-week, well, I just…don’t.
Hemingway. Old Man and the Sea did me in.
Joseph Conrad. Nostromo. My grad 11 history teacher, who I thought was really cool, thought I would like it. I didn’t. I got to about page 17. I still haven’t read Heart of Darkness, though somehow I faked it for 2 university classes.
Dickens, I guess, after Bleak House at school. But I do wonder whether it’s the school experience rather than the book that’s at stake. I did read Great Expectations last year and enjoyed it much more.
I rather like the idea of being a book therapist, though. Do you think there’s a course for that?
I can’t think of an author either. I have changed my mind multiple times though — I used to dislike Nabokov, for example, but now I think he’s great. I suppose authors I didn’t like I just never pick up again, and then I tend to forget them. Other authors I come to dislike over time, Jeanette Winterson, for example.
adevotedreader: Thanks for the recommendation of A Room of One’s Own. That’s the Woolf book that I’ve thought about reading if I ever do give her work another chance.
And I did come to appreciate Conrad when I read Heart of Darkness a second time, and I even enjoyed The Secret Agent on a first read. I’m not inclined to read more of his work, but I wouldn’t avoid it either.
I read Henry James’ Turn of the Screw in a high school class about the supernatural, and have never turned back to him. I might enjoy TotS now, but as a teenager I hated it; the writing style certainly was not appealing to a teenage boy.
I studied with the poet Dan Chiasson in college. This experience ruined his poetry, and more importantly all post confessional poetry for me forever. It makes me cringe to even read his name.
Nabokov. I tried reading “Lolita” when I was in high school for my AP English class. I tried reading Nabokov again in college – this time “Invitation to a Beheading.” Couldn’t stand him either time, and I love reading Russian literature- I just can’t stand Nabokov.
Luckily I read Possession first (a few years back) and enjoyed it very much. This year I read Still Life and I’m afraid I won’t be reading A.S. Byatt any more…