Rahat - A Fine Balance was just too sad. No balance in that book.

Noori: I like novels with happy endings! Any recommendations?

Rushdie got a bad name from 'satanic verses'.

Rushdie's book 'Midnight's Children' (written several years before satanic verses) not only won the booker prize, but was later adjudged as the best book among the 25 booker prize winning books.

His fame, recognition as a writer well precedes satanic verses. Though Satanic Verses and his subsequen books were mediocre, Midnight's Children was an ABSOLUTELY GREAT book by Rushdie and deserves all the praise for it!

Rahat - how was Madame Bovary later on in the book? Did the dull prose change?

Hmmm, I found it surprising that Holly Payne's made it to the publisher's - goes to say there's a lot of stuff out there that shouldn't make it but it does. She could have done a lot more with it.

Would Rushdie's Satanic Verses have been a better without as many words - perhaps slightly more succinct approach in his descriptions?

I haven't read any of his stuff and interested to find out what he is like as an author. What is it that brought people to read his stuff and give him recognition, apart from the obvious.

Noori, I think it varies from book to book or rather from author to author. For example, the purposefully dull prose in the beginning of madame bovary in combination with the callous selfishness of the Mrs. made me loathe the book on multiple levels. Similarly I felt no empathy for the fat girl with 1001 problems in Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone. Holly Payne's authorship on the other hand is just poor; it could have been a lot more interesting story in other hands, imo. About Satanic Verses-it was just too full of imagery and words to have a clear enough point for me.


Fairy-say it aint so! A fine balance on the chopping block? ah the injustices in this world.

I'm reading Mandela's Walk to Freedom at the moment, half way through.

It's got a lot of names/places. Interesting, only that I'd execpted a little more on his thoughts, how the authorities formulated their stratagems and especially how the ANC did formulated theirs.

But I suppose at his age he'll have a lot to write about - it's a whole life and he could have gone on the personal level or just facts/places etc.

Guys what turns you off a book?

Style of writing?
Subject of book?
Lack of depth or too much depth?
Do you prefer fiction or fact?
Facts or figures?
Did the book live up to your expectations?


Let me know what turns you off and why.
It makes for an interesting topic why you'd burn THAT book.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. It was long and depressing. I was hoping for a happy ending but I didn't get one!

...maybe I am a convert and maybe am am not to the gatsby religion...to make it simple...I"M NOT..haha...nice try buddy trying to re-transfer your WISHES back to me...I ain't converting...heehee

...rahat04...the only time I got riled up when I had to read THAT book..need a code name for it now ;)...don't want the gatsby-eeo (gestapo?) to come after me...

"We" as in the Muslim Ummah!

roz: your honor, who's this "we"?

woohoo I'm excited about all you guys getting riled up here!

I picked up great gatsby once looong ago, and just couldn't go through with it.

bookworm, you're right-dawkins was taking darwin's lead and running with it. and I think my selfish man taunt was inappropriately placed, as you noted. I just felt when reading this book that the man was rehashing so much of the obvious to his readers, as if doubting our ability to comprehend these things unless he broke them down into itty little bits for us...obviously my reaction was more from the gut and an assumption of his arrogance than a truly intellectually based objection to his thesis. And it was too tedious a read for me. thanks for the cliff notes though.

bookworm: there's no transferring of view...it's pretty clear that's what the gatsby character in the book is about...it sounds like you are convinced that you were wrong and that 'the great gatsby' is no longer something to put in the book burning thread.

hey roz

...are you a closet ROMANTIC who is transferring his views of love onto your hero Gatsby... :P

...cause it sounds like you understood deeply how gatsby wore his love, heart, pride, dignity, money, self-worth, everything on his sleeves...heehee...but, I agree with you and must give him two thumbs up for blindly persevering after miss. daisy the narcissist...

...I see the struggles in him...but, its not worth running after someone like that when in reality you're so keen on running away from yourself, you desperately search for a reason for your own existence...I guess his was his so called love of his life daisy...

..all he really needed was some antidepressants and not TLC from daisy!

I wouldnt burn the books anyhow, though I didnt enjoy them so much, they might still appeal to others!

'The God of Small Things' by Arundati Roy was terribly dissappointing and pointlessly longwinded.

I know hundreds will disagree with me here but for my sins I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho after hearing much hoo haa about it and all the way through it I was waiting for something to happen. It was an awful book that would serve better as a self-help book if it ever got to the point...

you know when i read the book...i thought it was a good book.... but i dont know why, when i saw the opera version i was soo moved....that i think i appreciate it more now than i did when i read the book...

Hiee Bookworm :)

I am getting jealous. While you guys are discussing which books should be burnt and which ones should be put up on a pedastal, i am struggling hard with explaining some of my own results :)

No dislikes for Gatsby but yes i have some 'issues' with it. Explaining them is a luxury i can't afford to indulge in right now :)

P.S Why don't i see you on the moderator list of Bellydancing?

Mali:

For me, Gatsby really helped quelled the typical self-righteous zeal that gets injected into you growing up as a teenager in an eastern/Muslim environment ? a zeal that unfortunately overrides everything else.

It?s one of those books with a theme that embeds a seed. The world?s black and white categories are subliminally rejected ? as per the realization that is the modern experience. It?s an acceptance of the motivations of materialism, of selfishness, of greed, of all that ? but an acceptance that doesn?t inspire or call for their rejection by looking down upon them.

Teek hai, the traditional themes of love and sacrifice may no longer be honored (by say Daisy and company). But then again, maybe their foundations weren?t always solid. The truth is however, the realities of today cannot be viewed from the lens of expectations of the past. Today demands new expectations of lovers.


Bookworm:
?..the gatsby drew audiences because maybe it described the american dream that money could by you anything, even love, but that love, as the readers witnessed was pretty worthless,??

Bookworm!!! But it wasn?t worthless at all!!! It wasn?t worthless to Gatsby and that is all that matters! So what if Daisy always saw the purity of Gatsby?s love, yet was only temporarily moved by it. And so what if she immediately forgot about him after his murder.

What we are compelled to see in that book is not the worthless results of Gatsby?s struggles. But that the struggle itself ? his willingness to engage in the struggle and not be deterred or disillusioned or be judgmental by the commotion around him.

While the weaknesses of individuals are all around us, it is no longer necessary to invite a judgment as often prescribed by conventional morals.

Though Gatsby?s efforts were rendered futile by those around him, we do not condemn anyone or judge anyone. But we do look up to Gatsby, admire and salute him for his persistence and integrity. He is the hero simply because he was willing to struggle.

But I agree, Daisy was damn annoying!!! :D

...like mailithegreat...I read the book long ago ...but, your commentary(rozaiba's) had got me thinking as to why I just don't like the book...
mailithegreat reminded me just now...I think I reacted just as strongly, from an emotional stand point, to this book as I reacted when I first read this prose....

...it was this great injustice (unrequited love) that was protrayed in the book so painfully and in contrast the tiresome descriptions were so tortorous for me to read (maybe, that was a technique used by the author to make us feel 'something'--anyone know?)

...please do not believe for a second that I don't have patience for descriptions...but, that is my point..the allegories in Tolstoy's books are sublime for instance...he can be describing farmers in the field working and you feel you're there,, and one never ever gets bored....

...the gatsby drew audiences because maybe it described the american dream that money could by you anything, even love, but that love, as the readers witnessed was pretty worthless, yet the poor guy just thought money should have made a difference...money is not the means to the end ...maybe, that is the curse of the amercian dream...even today...delusional...

I CAN'T believe this...I actually wrote an essay on a most reviled book just now...UGH! It feels like I'm in school again and I have to write a horrible essay on this horrible book ( sorry once again to the FANS of tis book)...I hope you gatsby appreciaters have appreciated my contribution in even mentioning this book...good bye and good riddance..I shall not talk about this book ever again...

...but I will discuss other books :)