Shamed

What makes writing "good?"

I just finished Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper and I was blown away by the story. I quickly went on to Goodreads to give it five stars and write a quick review about how it wowed me from the start. Afterward, I read reviews from other Goodreads members and a huge majority had given the book the lowest ratings of twos and ones. So I read what had them so peeved.

Many said Picoult's writing was too cliched. The B-story about Campbell and Julia was fluffy and unnecessary. The ending was ridiculous and blew. They hated Sarah. The story is "trash pop fiction." The more I read the reviews, the more embarrassed I felt about giving it a five star rating, about loving it.

In college, I took a Modern Novels course in which I had to read a different book each week, many of which were killer-boring and painful to read. I still hate Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel. We finally came to a novel that I was enthralled with from the start, Joyce Carol Oates' The Falls. I finally had great things I wanted to say to contribute to the class discussion, after having certain opinionated students dribble on for weeks about the greatness of the other selections. So, as I was discussing with a peer next to me before class started, I admitted to liking the story for once. Almost immediately I was drop-kicked by one overly-opinionated chick who said it reminded her of a trashy novel you could pick up on the shelves of Target. Just like that, my opinion was nulled.

Is there such thing as a book snob? What makes writing good as opposed to the kind of writing that the masses go for? Isn't an author's job to make you feel and think no matter the feelings or thoughts evoked? If we look closely at Shakespeare, while yes poetically written and clever, his plays were filled with sex and drama and conflict. All cliches stem from his plays as he used every one of them. If he were to rewrite for this generation, would others still be apt to call it popular garbage?

Cop up. No one wants to admit she's danced around to a Top 40 song at one point in her life. She's too cool for that. Metallica was cool until they sold out.

I admit I hated Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. And yet, I read it straight through to the disappointing end. I also don't think too highly of Twilight. But I also just recently purchased New Moon, to give it another shot. I'm not going to insult anyone's intelligence by saying they must be a moron for enjoying popular fiction. And so maybe I shouldn't take it to heart when other's disagree with my viewpoint. I just want it to be okay to love a book that everyone loves (or hates).