Judgmental much?
Nov. 5th, 2006 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksHas a single line in a book ever brought the book to a screeching halt for you? It has now happened to me twice. First time: reading a time travel set in ancient Egypt. The heroine made a pizza using goat cheese and tomatoes found in the pharaoh's kitchen garden. What? Tomatoes are indigenous to Central and South America and weren't introduced to Europe or Africa until the 1600s at the earliest. Couldn't get past that. It was a research/suitability issue.
The second time, which occurred yesterday, wasn't about research, it was about the mental stance of the protagonist. Heroine is a woman who has sort of bounced from one thing to another without settling in or figuring out what she wants. But she's now employed by a CIA-like organization. She isn't a super-spy, but she has some skills and talents which they can use. It's a good match and she seems to be good at the job. I'm enjoying the mystery. More than half way through the book, heroine kisses a co-worker and thinks: the ache that she'd felt since X broke her heart had faded almost to nothing after that kiss. Well, she doesn't think that exactly -- I don't have the book in front of me to get the exact quote, but the gist of her thought was that her ex-fiance had broken her heart and she had been mourning him. WTF? I've read the whole series, including the last book. He broke her heart? She cheated on him with an ex-boyfriend, after lying to him about where she was and what she was doing, and after basically refusing to set a wedding date and dragging her feet for more than a year long engagement. And so he broke up with her. Yes, his leaving her broke her heart and she could mourn the loss even though it was precipitated by her own behavior....but the attitude screamed a lack of responsibility or accountability, as if he acted in a vacuum and she was a helpless victim.
I don't have to like everything about a character to find him or her interesting and readable. No one is perfect in real life, and perfection in fiction would be boring. But the attitude bothered me. It was as if she was unwilling to view her own role in the destruction of their relationship and her own heartache. There were at least 150 pages to go, but I'm finished with the book. Maybe I'll come back to it feeling more tolerant and less judgmental later.
The second time, which occurred yesterday, wasn't about research, it was about the mental stance of the protagonist. Heroine is a woman who has sort of bounced from one thing to another without settling in or figuring out what she wants. But she's now employed by a CIA-like organization. She isn't a super-spy, but she has some skills and talents which they can use. It's a good match and she seems to be good at the job. I'm enjoying the mystery. More than half way through the book, heroine kisses a co-worker and thinks: the ache that she'd felt since X broke her heart had faded almost to nothing after that kiss. Well, she doesn't think that exactly -- I don't have the book in front of me to get the exact quote, but the gist of her thought was that her ex-fiance had broken her heart and she had been mourning him. WTF? I've read the whole series, including the last book. He broke her heart? She cheated on him with an ex-boyfriend, after lying to him about where she was and what she was doing, and after basically refusing to set a wedding date and dragging her feet for more than a year long engagement. And so he broke up with her. Yes, his leaving her broke her heart and she could mourn the loss even though it was precipitated by her own behavior....but the attitude screamed a lack of responsibility or accountability, as if he acted in a vacuum and she was a helpless victim.
I don't have to like everything about a character to find him or her interesting and readable. No one is perfect in real life, and perfection in fiction would be boring. But the attitude bothered me. It was as if she was unwilling to view her own role in the destruction of their relationship and her own heartache. There were at least 150 pages to go, but I'm finished with the book. Maybe I'll come back to it feeling more tolerant and less judgmental later.
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Date: 2006-11-05 06:10 pm (UTC)Hugs on the bad run of books, JM.
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Date: 2006-11-05 11:12 pm (UTC)I think my mood is bleeding into my reading. Plot holes and character inconsistencies that I normally wouldn't let bother me seem like huge problems to me right now. Guess I'm just feeling very "glass half empty".
I have a bunch of books that I've been looking forward to, but I'm afraid to start them for fear that my black mood will ruin them. I think I'm going to go on a re-reading binge to clear my reading tastes up. Well, at least until Tuesday when the next "In Death" book is released.