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Are you talking about Absalom, Absalom? (I've never read ANY Faulkner, by the way.) I'm curious, though, what the weird speech pattern is. I know someone who absolutely refused to read A Prayer for Owen Meany because he YELLED ALL THE TIME.
No, I was talking about The Reivers. I tried to read Absalom, Absalom and forced myself about a quarter or third of the way through and I just couldn't do it anymore.
As far as the speech pattern, he includes phrases in parenthesis about two dozen times on each page. I'll quote a few lines to give an example.
Quote:
...and I was sitting in the chair against the wall waiting for noon when I would be paid my Saturday's (week's) wage of ten cents and we would go home and eat dinner and I would be free at last to overtake (it was May) the baseball game which had been running since breakfast without me: the idea (not mine: your great-grandfather's) being that even at eleven a man should already have behind him one year of paying for, assuming responsibility for, the space he occupied, the room he took up, in the world's (Jefferson Mississippi's, anyway) economy.
But as you can see from that short quote, it's not just the parenthesis but his entire way of speaking. And often times it's a lot more tedious that that example! But the actual story is indeed growing on me. I've gotten to the point where I just automatically skip over the words in parenthesis because they're so distracting, and that's helped some.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lamplight
No, I was talking about The Reivers. I tried to read Absalom, Absalom and forced myself about a quarter or third of the way through and I just couldn't do it anymore.
As far as the speech pattern, he includes phrases in parenthesis about two dozen times on each page. I'll quote a few lines to give an example.
But as you can see from that short quote, it's not just the parenthesis but his entire way of speaking. And often times it's a lot more tedious that that example! But the actual story is indeed growing on me. I've gotten to the point where I just automatically skip over the words in parenthesis because they're so distracting, and that's helped some.
Oh! That would make me MENTAL! Good idea about skipping past the parenthetical nonsense.
... he includes phrases in parenthesis about two dozen times on each page. I'll quote a few lines to give an example.
EEEECCCCKKKK
I would have to throw that one out the window!
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Originally Posted by DandJ
Oh! That would make me MENTAL!
No, not you. I cannot imagine such a thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by netwit
I like certain kinds of suspense. I think the best horrorish books are about a battle between good and evil. But for it to be more than genre fiction, good has to win and the suspense is about the choices people make and why they make them. It might be a thin kind of victory, but for me, evil can't win or be glorified in gratuitous violence.
I can see your point of view, but I tend to think of horror as more of the demons and creatures from out of this world, like vampires, werewolves, etc. Suspense to me is when there's a constant tension that something bad is about to happen and the reader is held fixated, unable to tell the protagonist: "No! Do NOT do THAT!"
Too frequently overplayed, in my viewpoint, but that's just me.
I started reading "Dead By Midnight" by Beverly Barton and realized I have already read it. I can't do repeats if it is within the last decade, lol. So my next treadmill reading book will be "See Jane Run" by Joy Fielding.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LookinForMayberry
Back on The Devil in Pew Seven. My reading it got interrupted by the arrival of "Dance for the Dead," and I've been leery of returning to it... it starts out with an account of the terror of a young girl escaping from her home after an intruder has taken someone hostage in her bedroom, and her father prompting her to run for help. I don't know what specifically about that beginning that affects me so adversely, but I really don't want to pick it up, yet feel I need to continue.
Weird, huh?
I love suspense but not horror.
I just got "Dance for the Dead" from the library but I have about 8 books to read before I get to it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by netwit
Well, it's almost embarrassing to have read so many books in so short a time. I finished Little Star last night and it most reminded me of that classic with the character Piggy in which children are on an island but I'm having a senior moment and I can't remember the title. There was also some of Stephen King's first book in it, about the girl who goes nuts at the high school prom, but I can't remember that title either.
I'm ambivalent about the book. I think I liked his other two better. He is excellent at conveying the angst of adolescence. It's psychologically scary.
So I'm back to The Lacuna, with side trips into 1001 Nights.
ETA: Lord of the Flies, as I've just been reminded ;-)
My grandson is reading Lord of the Flies in school. I don't think he likes it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DandJ
Carrie! I saw the movie when I was a kid. I didn't sleep for weeks.
OMG....I used to love watching horror movies when I was a kid. The scarier the better. The only horror type author I like is John Saul.
Quote:
Originally Posted by netwit
^ But speaking of movies, I saw something on TV about Tom Cruise playing Jack Reacher of the Lee Child books. HAHAHA! That will never work for anyone who has read the Lee Child books.
No way....he would not work. That would be the same as the Joe Pike character in Robert Crais novels. Sadly I don't think we have good enough actors for those parts anymore.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LookinForMayberry
I hated Stephen King books for years... I just couldn't handle the edginess his stories gave me, until we listened to an audio recording of a work by him involving a car with a trunk that things disappeared into. It had me mesmerized, and I couldn't stop listening. After that I tried reading other works, but found I didn't like those either.
What can I say -- I don't like suspense.
Was that Christine?
I like his movies better than his books.
I wonder if Final Destination was a book. Good story. I usually like books better than the movies but this one got really bad reviews.
'kay, so you got me wondering and I looked up his books... I am fairly certain it was "From A Buick 8" based on the preview in Amazon's "Look Inside" feature.
Just a quick note (probably not quick at all), while I'm recharging my mp3 player (Sony Walkman), to say that I am about half-way (55% or so) through "Gone Girl" (audio version), and I am totally hooked (like a willing trout).
Heh, I found the posts about parentheses amusing, sorry.
Once again, it's a book I found through this thread, so thanks everybody. This is the first book in a really long time that I can't put down. The narrators are EXCELLENT, one for Nick and one for Amy. I have been sitting here since 7:30, without a break, listening while people watching in Istanbul, a great combo. İstiklal Caddesi Kamerası I ibbtube.com
I just thought I would write this now while I am still liking it. Too many books start out great and then fizzle out, I hope that it isn't the case with "Gone Girl."
It's 2:15 a.m. and I'm not ready to quit - this may be an all-nighter.
I have been sitting here since 7:30, without a break, listening while people watching in Istanbul, a great combo.
Imagine being able to watch people just walking along through their lives, from across the globe. As I watched, I realized that each grouping were completely in their own worlds, just walking along, impervious to all the other worlds surrounding them, and us watching from afar.
I hated Stephen King books for years... I just couldn't handle the edginess his stories gave me, until we listened to an audio recording of a work by him involving a car with a trunk that things disappeared into. It had me mesmerized, and I couldn't stop listening. After that I tried reading other works, but found I didn't like those either.
What can I say -- I don't like suspense.
What I do when suspense gets to me is read the ending. I don't find it spoils my experience of the book at all, but it takes off that edge that, in some books, makes me uncomfortable.
What I do when suspense gets to me is read the ending. I don't find it spoils my experience of the book at all, but it takes off that edge that, in some books, makes me uncomfortable.
You are GREAT! I never thought of it!
Thanks.
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