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While I'm declaring things...
I've never read any James Patterson before. It's just never shown up on my radar.
But my beloved Michael Emerson co-narrates a book called Four Blind Mice. So I'm checking it out. It's a kind of murder mystery with a bunch of sadistic, gruesome killings in it. The story is just compelling enough that I'm vaguely interested in how it ends. But it's all very ordinary.
First, let me say that Emerson's narration is excellent. I could listen to him talk all day. The other guy is fine, no complaints. But Patterson's use of language is very average and tired. The dialogue is also vapid and uninteresting. No one has an unusual speech pattern, or even a unique or revealing phrase they use. There's a guy who speaks English, Vietnamese, and French fluently, but his speech pattern is boring! It's all very mundane. Maybe he's making a point about something larger, but I don't think so. It just reads like uninspiring literature that has no real importance, no provoking theme (granted, I'm not done yet), nothing unique or original about it. Even the themes emerging thusfar (I'm just over halfway through) are tired and overdone. Ergo, I'm declaring it:
I don't think James Patterson is a very good writer.
But I hear that he's incredibly popular.
So...what's up with that?
Am I missing something here?
But my beloved Michael Emerson co-narrates a book called Four Blind Mice. So I'm checking it out. It's a kind of murder mystery with a bunch of sadistic, gruesome killings in it. The story is just compelling enough that I'm vaguely interested in how it ends. But it's all very ordinary.
First, let me say that Emerson's narration is excellent. I could listen to him talk all day. The other guy is fine, no complaints. But Patterson's use of language is very average and tired. The dialogue is also vapid and uninteresting. No one has an unusual speech pattern, or even a unique or revealing phrase they use. There's a guy who speaks English, Vietnamese, and French fluently, but his speech pattern is boring! It's all very mundane. Maybe he's making a point about something larger, but I don't think so. It just reads like uninspiring literature that has no real importance, no provoking theme (granted, I'm not done yet), nothing unique or original about it. Even the themes emerging thusfar (I'm just over halfway through) are tired and overdone. Ergo, I'm declaring it:
I don't think James Patterson is a very good writer.
But I hear that he's incredibly popular.
So...what's up with that?
Am I missing something here?