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One of the greatest novels? I give it one star.

Posted: July 21st, 2010, 6:00 pm
by jjochwat
A writer at The Morning News compiled excerpts from actual one-star Amazon.com reviews of books from Time’s list of the 100 best novels from 1923 to the present.

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/ ... ements.php

Re: One of the greatest novels? I give it one star.

Posted: July 21st, 2010, 7:08 pm
by sbs_mjc1
Proof that you absolutely, positively cannot please everyone.

Re: One of the greatest novels? I give it one star.

Posted: July 21st, 2010, 7:25 pm
by steve
Some of these are damn funny.

Re: One of the greatest novels? I give it one star.

Posted: July 21st, 2010, 8:16 pm
by AnimaDictio
HAhahahhahahah! These are hilarious! Two of my favorites ...
The Sun Also Rises (1926)
Author: Ernest Hemingway

“Here’s the first half of the book: ‘We had dinner and a few drinks. We went to a cafe and talked and had some drinks. We ate dinner and had a few drinks. Dinner. Drinks. More dinner. More drinks. We took a cab here (or there) in Paris and had some drinks, and maybe we danced and flirted and talked sh*t about somebody. More dinner. More drinks. I love you, I hate you, maybe you should come up to my room, no you can’t’… I flipped through the second half of the book a day or two later and saw the words ‘dinner’ and ‘drinks’ on nearly every page and figured it wasn’t worth the risk.”
I wonder if the word "dinner" and "drinks" are on nearly every page.
The Sound and the Fury (1929)
Author: William Faulkner

“This book is like an ungrateful girlfriend. You do your best to understand her and get nothing back in return.”
I've been there before.

Re: One of the greatest novels? I give it one star.

Posted: July 23rd, 2010, 9:49 pm
by shanchamber
Some of these are dead on. The Grapes of Wrath really just is about "dirt and migrating." And I also hope Virginia Woolf stays dead.

Books become respectable for obscure reasons sometimes. I'm not sure that some of these reviewers aren't more right than professional critics and academics.

Re: One of the greatest novels? I give it one star.

Posted: July 24th, 2010, 4:06 pm
by MosesSiregar
To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
Author: Harper Lee

“I don’t see why this book is so fabulous. I would give it a zero. I find no point in writing a book about segregation, there’s no way of making it into an enjoyable book. And yes I am totally against segregation.”
Bwahaha!

Re: One of the greatest novels? I give it one star.

Posted: July 26th, 2010, 4:09 pm
by bronwyn1
The Slaughterhouse Five review was hilarious.
I do not believe that an alien can kidnap someone and house them in a zoo for years at a time, while it is only a microsecond on earth. I also do not believe that a person has seven parents.

Re: One of the greatest novels? I give it one star.

Posted: July 27th, 2010, 11:17 pm
by Mira
I think the one I thought was the funniest was the review for the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. They panned it because the whole book was so clearly an advertisement for Turkish Delight.

ROFL. That is just too funny.

Re: One of the greatest novels? I give it one star.

Posted: July 28th, 2010, 12:14 am
by johndavid
I don't know if 'The Jungle' made Time's top 100 but I just finished the book (and liked it) so I looked at the one star reviews of it on Amazon. Here is what one said...

"Unless you like being depressed and miserable don't read this book. It was well written for the period and political purpose it was intended for, but I can't recommend it unless it is a mandatory reading for a class you are taking. That's all I can say about this book."