"On the other hand, I was very much interested in the way people behaved, the human dance, how they seemed to move around each other. I wanted to play around with that."—Octavia Butler
Good stories become great stories when people you care about are involved. For me, it's more about the characters than the plot (which, btw, better stand up).
It's all better with friends.
I've read books with characters I don't like, but if they're well-written I can still find them relatable. It's like family and friends. I don't always like them, but there's always something keeping the relationship strong.
ReplyDeleteI think the keyword here is "relatable."
DeleteBy the way, if you haven't read KINDRED by Octavia Butler, I highly recommend it.
I'm not familiar with Octavia Butler. I'll have to look her up. On the character point, I can usually find something to relate with, but if I can't stand any of the people involved, I'll bail pretty quickly. However, it's all about the characters. If you don't mind the change in format, that's what was wrong with the later STAR WARS movies. They had no characters in them; it became all about the technology. Long video games, if you will. I've currently got 3 library books checked out, and I don't like the people in any of them. I may finish them just because I'm obsessive that way, but the jury is still out.
ReplyDeleteThe book I mentioned in last week's post is a perfect example. I loved the character. He was irreverant and funny and so danged smart! What I got immensely tired of was the paragraphs upon paragraphs that were all about the details of his predicatment. While I enjoyed the first several, I soon found myself skimming them.
DeleteNormally, I have no problems putting a book down and calling it a DNF. Life's too short to keep hoping something will get better because usually it doesn't. However, because I liked this character, I skipped to the end of the book to see how it ended, knowing I had ceased to care about how it got there.