Don't You Hate It When...
...the book you're reading turns out to be gay incest pornography? I wrote earlier that I was plodding through The Chimney Sweeper's Boy by Barbara Vine, the pseudonym of the author Ruth Rendall. This book was touted as a psychological thriller and a mystery. It was neither. Patricia Cornwell, who wrote a good Jack the Ripper book that I own, said that Ms. Vine is "unequivocally the most brilliant mystery novelist of our times." I just couldn't get into it. I saw the ending coming from a mile away. Most people on Amazon seemed to enjoy this book, but I thought the plot dragged and I really didn't care about any of the characters; in fact, I found them to be loathsome. I only finished it out of my own stubbornness. Don't waste your time.
posted by Jenny G @ 3:06 PM
5 Comments:
Jamie, it was actually Chris Daughtry who sang Dead or Alive back in February, and it was totally awesome. Perhaps you can find a clip at www.idolonfox.com. :)
Jenny is the foremost authority on American Idol in these parts! (I should know, since I watch it with her every week!)
I felt similar about the movie Rent. The play had been heralded, the film had been heralded, the previews looked awesome, so I went. 10 minutes later I was thinking, "Why is everybody gay with AIDS?" Just not my cup of tea.
Hi, Jamie! If you just want to see the performance, try idolonfox.com first. If it's not there, try idolforums.com. People usually have all the performances to download. I used to have 5 different sites that I download off of, but they've all been taken off.
Goddess: LOL I sort of felt the same way about Rent, but I sort of liked it. I've seen the play but not the movie yet.
Barbara Vine has gone off sharply in the past six or seven years. I found this one and Anya's book pretty dismal. Try some of her earliest stuff instead. Strangely enough, with her Ruth Rendell hat on she has improved considerably over the past few years. Now, if I were her/them I could probably write something creepy and mysterious about the struggle between split authorial personalities.
Thanks for the recommendation, GSE! I'll have to check out one of her first books to see if I like it.
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