Monday, October 24, 2005

You call these literary classics? Fiddlesticks!

A friend of mine sent me this amusing link. It's a collection of one-star reviews about books on Time's list of the 100 best novels from 1923 - present.

Some of the highlights include:
The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
Author: J.D. Salinger
“So many other good books…don’t waste your time on this one. J.D. Salinger went into hiding because he was embarrassed.”

Lord of the Flies (1955)
Author: William Golding
“I am obsessed with Survivor, so I thought it would be fun. WRONG!!! It is incredibly boring and disgusting. I was very much disturbed when I found young children killing each other. I think that anyone with a conscience would agree with me.”

The Lord of the Rings (1954)
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
“The book is not readable because of the overuse of adverbs.”

1984 (1948)
Author: George Orwell
“Don’t listen to anyone who tries to distinguish between “serious” works of literature like this one and allegedly “lesser” novels. The distinction is entirely illusory, because no novels are “better” than any others, and the concept of a “great novel” is an intellectual hoax. This book isn’t as good as Harry Potter in MY opinion, and no one can refute me. Tastes are relative!”

To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
Author: Harper Lee
“I don’t see why this book is so fabulous. I would give it a zero. I find no point in writing a book about segregation, there’s no way of making it into an enjoyable book. And yes I am totally against segregation.”
Well at least for most of them we can always watch the movie.

Read more spot-on book reviews here.

4 comments:

  1. "The Handmaid's Tale" at least made for a bewildering movie, with strange performances all around.
    Atwood has some decent out there.. somewhere.

    Tell me, TAN, was that your review of "Native Son?"

    Save us Jeebus.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, how my inner english-major weeps.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great link.

    My favorite is the Grapes of Wrath review. All that book was about was dirt, he is right.

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  4. Anonymous10/27/2005

    What? No "Confederacy of Dunces"? Whose list is this?

    ReplyDelete

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