What's the Worst Book You've Ever Read? discussion
Running With Scissors: A Memoir
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I'm glad you wrote this. I agree on all scores; the author has some of the obtuse perceptions of Sedaris and Eggers, but weak fuel in his writer's engine. I recall the actual writing was simple and convincing (in that twisted and tragic way that cannot pass for humor) but didn't IGNITE. And yes, I finished it for the same reasons as you, and b/c I'd hoped it would rise above it's own seedy morass of a setting.Also: I was amused that it took place in Northampton, MA, and that the girl aspired to go to Smith. I know it well. Now I belong to "Smith in Europe" and it's fun... more fun OUT than IN, trust me...
Did anyone read "WHAT is the What?" by Eggers? Tooo sad for me, as well as for a sturdy daughter who put in down.
Why did it suck? It got a lot of hype for being hilarious, and I read comparisons to David Sedaris and Dave Eggers, both of whom I love. I thought I was about to read a funny book about an unconventional childhood. So I basically got my expectations smashed, because I don't think this guy had a hilarious childhood at all--it was actually pretty tragic. And he didn't manage to make the tragedy humorous or insightful when he wrote about it. I was mainly just horrified.
Why I finished it? Still unsure. But I would say that I kept reading because I was hoping it was going to get better--that the main character was going to grow up and get a little more independent and maybe come out of it OK. I kept waiting for the funny part, but I finally concluded that you've got to have a kind of twisted sense of humor to laugh at this story.