John Henry Days

JULY 17, 2003

It bothers me that I didn't enjoy this book all that much. The writing was excellent, the main character was very compelling, the subject matter was important, but I just couldn't get into it. This is just one of those books that people like to put on their bookshelf to look like they are inteligent, thoughtful and a good person. I will probably do the same, but the book was still a little boring.

While reading the book I thought about what would have made it better for me. I don't doubt the formula works for other readers, I just knew that if the style was different I could fall in love with this character. His name is J. and he is a freelance writer who travels the country writing stories for whatever magazine will hire him. He is a literary nomad. J. is snide and cynical but is still very endearing. If the book had been just about him and his merry band of freelancers, I would have loved it. Instead, there was the main subject of the book -- race (I think). Really, that's the problem. I don't like reading stories outside of a class where the author buries the main point of the book in sublety and metaphor. Yes, fiction is dependent on this technique, but I find that I am too lazy to process the information on my own. And in this case, it seems that the author is burying everything in subtext just for the sake of doing so. Why can't authors occasionally just come out and say what they mean?

So, it may be unfair of me to say that I didn't like this book because I didn't get it, but that's the truth. I don't really get it. If anyone else has read this book and would like to chat with me about then I would be more than happy to do so. Without that, I'll have to say that this book isn't for me, at least not at this time.

Posted in Book at 10:47 am.