Smarter girls have better sex lives, according to a recent study. Boost your brain — and your libido — with these must-reads.While I may consider Moll Flanders to be a sexy sexy book written in the 1700s [see image below], I highly doubt others would agree let alone pick it up for some fun, Summer reading.

It took me approximately three minutes to read. Very engaging, but I found myself pissed off by the tacky writing. I felt like the author, Alice Sebold, was trying so, so hard to be profound throughout the book and that shown through more than the actual characters. The plot itself was interesting: the idea of a dead girl viewing her family and friends from heaven after dying. That alone is interesting. But after a while, the plot twists were just too much. And I could do nothing but scoff at the last line of the novel:
I wish you a long and happy lifeReally now? Really? Can we please have some crackers with that ginormous hunk of cheese? The characters lives ended up so neatly packaged to a degree that was just too much for me. I know I am behind the times, since this novel came out in 2002, but it was a book so well received by sources that are supposedly hard to appeal to. Just look at the Amazon page for the book, which has soundbites from these sources. The New Yorker said
the book remains a stunning achievementUgh! This just goes back to my frustration with contemporary literature. We are so caught up in the idea of a story that writing and deeper meaning just are thrown out the window. The Lovely Bones was not good writing. It oozed with cheesiness (and while I am a big fan of cheese, this kind left me with indigestion), but it was an interesting concept for a story and that is what we will focus on.
When I went back to my high school teacher, I expressed my sincere discontent with the novel. And he agreed that it wasn't very good. And then we spent the next thirty minutes talking about what was wrong with it...
But, I suppose that is what Summer reading is for. A time to take in a sub par novel and enjoy the fast paced read. And I did enjoy how quickly it took me to read because I didn't waste much of my time and was able to jump back into classics, which apparently is where I feel most satisfied. And, let me tell you, after The Lovely Bones, Jane Eyre really was satisfying!
Sometimes work just has its moment in the sun. Like "American Beauty." I loved that movie. Watched it recently, totally sucks. But that's what separates great art from...not great art. The test of time!
ReplyDeleteHow bad was the writing in those lovely bones. i read it when it first came out. It was a pretty compelling read, an interesting conceit, wasn't it. Okay so maybe it was packaged to neatly in the end. I just thought it was a horribly sad book.
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