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Books that CRACKLE!

Libre

Libre

Member
I love "literature", as long as it's not dull.
I just finished East of Eden, and it was wonderful - a masterpiece.
I can't say that it really had any CRACKLE, though.
But it was so great, it held my interest from start to finish.

Having gotten to the bottom of my TBR pile, I made a trip to Borders. I picked up 2 Michael Crichton books (Lost World and Timeline), also The Good Earth, The Art of War, and Beloved by Toni Morrison.

Being in a "serious" mood - having just finished East of Eden, I decided to start on Beloved. This book was voted the best work of fiction of the last 25 years by a couple hundred writers, critics, and reviewers, as reported in the New York Times.

I tell you, this book has ZILCHO crackle. It takes off like a hippopotamus. I read 10 pages (took me 3 days), then realized I had no clue what I had read and started again from the beginning. Took me another 3 days to get to the same point. Clearly, this book was not drawing me in.

This morning I drearily started to take it with me, when I said, oh well, never mind, and picked up Timeline. This book CRACKLES! It may not ever be voted the best work of fiction, but it CRACKLES!

The first line:
He should never have taken that shortcut.

Read about 25 pages in my first sitting. Can't wait to continue it later.

What books have you read lately that CRACKLE!

Also, do you have an encouragement for me to continue Beloved? I hate to trash it so fast, but really, I can't remember the first line, don't want to remember it, or for that matter, can't remember if it even HAS a first line.
 
I rather enjoyed Beloved although I wouldn't rate it a cereal cartoon character.
 
Really? All I've read of Beloved were the opening lines and those were immediately caught in my head. 124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom.
 
I'm not sure if I understand what you mean by "crackle" when it comes to books. I'm sorry, but I'm a little confused about what all a book needs to crackle if a masterpiece doesn't do it.
 
What I mean by "crackle", is that it's exciting. Lot's of masterpieces don't have that quality. Steinbeck's work is thought provoking, artfully written, memorable, brilliant prose. But it's not exactly rip snorting, grab you by the guts, chew you up and spit you out kind of prose. Crichton's prose is.
 
Are you confusing plot and prose? If you're not I'm really not following you here.
 
ions said:
Are you confusing plot and prose? If you're not I'm really not following you here.
Click to expand...
Well, I would say that plot and prose are inextricably commingled, in that the plot is described with the prose, and the prose develops the plot. I suppose you might have cases where the plot is excellent and intriguing, and the prose are clumsy and awkward, but I think that would be a rare case indeed. If I might use an arboreal analogy, the plot is the forest, composed of the trees which are the prose, which in turn are composed of the leaves and branches which are the individual words and sentences.
So, the first sentence, as I wrote above: He should never have taken that shortcut.
Is written in such a way as to immediately create tension and cause me to read the following sentences, on and on into the book as the crisp and crackling prose develops an intriguing plot.
Are you following me now?
 
Beloved is hauntingly good. If you give it a GOOD chance. Just continue with the book, even though it maye not seem to make sense to you. You'll probably work it out later. When I read it, it was with a small class so we were always discussing the confusing parts. This is a kind of book that might require some outside help like sparknotes or something...*shivers*
 
I think my problem with it was due to the fact that I had just finished East of Eden - a monumentally great and complex book. I just could not get into anything heavy again - so I opted out of Beloved to read a techno-thriller by Crichton. I'll pick up Beloved again after a reasonable seperation period from East of Eden.
 
Libre, i know exactly what you mean when you say crackle!! when i started Timeline i think i put it down once, before i was finished. it wasnt a masterpiece, but it was a really fun and entertaining read. so if i were to choose another book with crackle, i put Eaters of the Dead under the same Crackle category. I thought it was just as fun as Timeline and i think i liked it a little better, but ill worn you, alot of reviews ive read on it hated its format and graded it pretty poorly, but ill throw it into the Crackle category as well as Mine by Robert R Mccammon , Salems Lot crackled, and another book that ive read recently that had some crackle in it was Manhatten Hunt Club by John Saul, not great but they were really fun
 
Frying tonight!

Crackling books - try The Rainmaker (John Grisham) or The Good German (Joseph Kanon) or Julius (BA Levine) or The Beach (Alex Garland). They're all fast reads and give you something you can warm your hands with.
 
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