Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   GeePawHill (geepawhill@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 28-Sep-2026 12:21:08 JST GeePawHill

   I am a "yes". The novel was John Irving's first huge splash, _The World According to Garp_.

   I read it shortly after it hit mass-market paperback, and then I tore it apart and put it in three different trash cans.

   Irving's a gifted writer, w/o question. The book is enthralling, a page-turner. (He's written better since, too.)

   I destroyed the book because not a single line of it made me believe he cared about even a single character in it.

   • Embed this notice
     George Dinwiddie (gdinwiddie@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 28-Sep-2026 12:21:06 JST George Dinwiddie

     in reply to

     @GeePawHill I’ve forgotten the details, but I remember someone relating that someone they knew thought a particular book was so evil that they threw it in the river. The person telling the story then went out and bought another copy, soaked it in water, and put it on the shelf where the other copy had been. I guess that really freaked out the other person and reinforced their opinion that the book was evil.

   • Embed this notice
     GeePawHill (geepawhill@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 28-Sep-2026 12:21:07 JST GeePawHill

     in reply to

     It's a long and very dark story, but then, so is Mistry's _A Fine Balance_ or Styron's _Sophie's Choice_. I didn't throw those away, cuz their author's loved their characters greatly, even as they went through the hell of the story.

   • Embed this notice
     GeePawHill (geepawhill@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 28-Sep-2026 12:21:07 JST GeePawHill

     in reply to

     I don't generally use the word or concept of "evil" any more. I guess I've seen too many awful things done by good people since then.

     But at the time, I believed it was a horrible thing.

     Steve's Place repeated this.