All-time Authors Sometimes Deliver Duds

Even great novelists occasionally write a clunker -- sort of a loose cannon in a canon.

Often, the literary dud comes at or near the start of an author's career. For instance, Jack London's A Daughter of the Snows (1902) deserves kudos for starring a strong female character, but it's an awkward novel with stilted dialogue. Maybe London had to write it to get the hang of that fiction-book thing, because he quickly penned the amazing dog adventure The Call of the Wild (1903) and the superb nautical thriller The Sea-Wolf (1904).

Then there are the book fails that come at or near the end of an author's career. One example is Willa Cather's Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940). Cather's 11 previous novels (published between 1912 and 1935) ranged from very good (O Pioneers! and Shadows on the Rock) to sublime (My Antonia and Death Comes for the Archbishop), but Sapphira is nearly unreadable. Cather was dealing with ill-health and perhaps some depression during the last decade of her life, so that undoubtedly affected her writing.

But some renowned authors received cash for clunkers during the height of their careers. For instance, Carson McCullers wrote the exquisite The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and the stunning Reflections in a Golden Eye before coming out with her mostly tedious The Member of the Wedding. That last book has its moments and its admirers, but all I recall is being left at the altar of boredom.

John Steinbeck wrote books such as the masterful The Grapes of Wrath, the mesmerizing East of Eden, the delightful Tortilla Flat, and the late-career gem The Winter of Our Discontent. But he also authored the mid-career dud Burning Bright. It's an over-stylized novella about a guy upset that he can't father a child, and Steinbeck weirdly has him be a circus member in the book's first part, a farmer in the book's second part, etc., without time passing to switch professions. Maybe he's supposed to be an "everyman." Also, no Burning Bright characters talk like real human beings -- but at least they don't speak to a dad-who's-allegedly-now-a-tree like Joseph Wayne does in Steinbeck's To a God Unknown.

The dialogue almost always rings true in Stephen King's page-turning novels, but not so much in Cell. Even the plot machinery in that apocalyptic book grinds and wheezes, which is surprising for a marvelous author like King. Cell, though intermittently exciting, is one of King's very rare missteps.

Speaking of missteps, how about that supremely dopey sequel Tom Sawyer, Detective? Well, Mark Twain needed the money at the time.

If you'd like to mention any other book blunders by famous authors, or if you disagree with any of my dud determinations, I'm sure none of your comments below will be clunkers!

 

Comments

[Mark Teich]

06:32 PM on 08/08/2011

I actually liked "Member of the Wedding," though mildly, and you didn't mention "Ballad of the Sad Cafe," which is a weird, surreal little book. A couple of her short stories were spectacular as well, more perfect than her novels, "Wunderkind" is a wonderful authobiographically influenced story about her first artistic flights as a child musician, and "The Sojourner" is amazingly at the complete other end of the spectrum, about a middle-aged man suffering at the wasted years of his uncommitted life -- amazing that she could do both with equal believability and intensity; "The Sojourner," for me, is one of the most heart-breaking stories of all time, possibly because it strikes so close to home. Never could get into Stephen King. Read "Pet Sematary," and while it was creepily haunting in its way, it was curiously without style for me, and I figured that if that was his most lauded book ever, I'd had enough. On the other hand, he wrote "The Shawshank Redemption," so I guess I missed the boat.

[Dave Astor]

06:56 PM on 08/08/2011

"Ballad of the Sad Cafe" was definitely weird and surreal -- and I liked it a lot! I haven't read Carson McCullers' short stories, but you described those two tales so well and so eloquently that I must give them a try! Many of Stephen King's books are mass-audience literature, but some are "literature literature" -- as in the sublime "From a Buick 8." Thanks for your great comment, Mark!

[minusjason]

11:29 AM on 08/01/2011

Personally I love the work of Philip K. Dick, but I found Valis unreadable. I think it might be the only book I ever chose not to finish, and I made the choice only about 70 or 80 pages in. It's just so rambling and I had to spend more time Googling to understand the obscure references than actually reading the book. I think it's reasonably well-respected, but I just didn't like it at all. I think Dick was heavily into amphetamines at the time.

[Dave Astor]

11:42 AM on 08/01/2011

Thanks, minusjason, for your great explanation of why you didn't like that one book of an author you love.

[JDM73]

06:48 PM on 07/31/2011

As big a Peter Straub fan as I am, I must admit that I didn't understand where he was going with "A Dark Matter". Certain passages were memorable and lived up to the very high standard Straub has set for himself over the years, but on the whole it was a disappointment. (To be fair, this probably had more to do with the publisher's demand for significant edits than anything else.)

[Dave Astor]

07:05 PM on 07/31/2011

I haven't read Peter Straub, but it's interesting the way you described his less-than-stellar effort. When a great author writes a not-so-great book, certain passages can still be memorable, as you said, but not enough passages. And that demand for significant edits does NOT sound good. Thanks for writing, JDM73!

[nameoftherain]

02:37 PM on 07/31/2011

Hard to take literary criticism seriously from someone who considers Stephen King to be a good writer. Entertaining, sometimes, and certainly prolific; but his work is NOT literature.

[Dave Astor]

02:51 PM on 07/31/2011

Thanks for commenting, nameoftherain. I hear you. But I'm someone who admires both "highbrow" and "lowbrow" authors if they write well. I think novelists such as King, Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, etc., write literature -- just a different kind of literature from the more prestigious novelists I also admire such as Cather, Steinbeck, Balzac, Zola, Colette, Dickens, the Brontes, Melville, Hawthorne, Remarque, Atwood, Kingsolver, LeClezio, Toni Morrison, etc.

[Hoosierbrad]

02:16 PM on 07/31/2011

George RR Martins latest - 1000 pages of predictable tripe.

[Dave Astor]

02:32 PM on 07/31/2011

I haven't read Martin's series, but the avatar/icon next to your screen name reminds me that I do like The Cure -- including its song "Just Like Heaven." Sounds like reading Martin's latest was NOT "Just Like Heaven" for you. Thanks for commenting, Hoosierbrad!