Let's talk about writers shall we? And what makes a good writer? Is it really someone who sells the most books? This girl dosen't think so. Salman Rushdie, famous for his work "The Satanic Verses which caused such controversy he actually had to go into hiding because a bounty was put on his head, is considered to be a great writer. When efforts to read "Shalimar the clown" this reviewer couldn't get through it. The language was difficult for this American girl to follow. Granted personally this reviewer has always had a tough time with proper "english" or Brit Lit as some prefer to call it. It was so dry and hard to maneuver through it probably would have gone on my zero star list. This reviewer has not read any of his other work because she was so put off by it she never gave any of his other work a shot. Could this one book been a flop, possibly but she finds it hard to believe many of the "great writers" out there works were truly boring. I'm sure my old freshmen english teacher would have a heart attack at these next words but well this is just an opinion right. Lets look at Hemingway or even Steinbeck other great writers they wrote the classics but how many of us could actually finish any of these works without falling asleep or because we had to for school. Is it the the time period is lost on our generation. (Proud to say this reviewer is the last year of generation X but shall digress)

Or is it that new authors have come up with with different techniques to capture today's readers? Are the old classics not relevant in today's society. The idea of "old money" a tradition held on to deeply in the south did not help out this reviewer when she had to read F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby."

And why is it when author's write someone must tear their work apart to say that ring the children try to catch to grab at on the carousel in the "Catcher and the Rye" really symbolized anything at all? Why can't writer's say a hat was blue just because they liked the color blue? Why is it some professor somewhere must say it means the person was depressed? Reminds me of the teacher who tried to say that all the Beatles songs meant something so John Lennon wrote "I am the walrus"

This slightly helps the thought segway into this. The last book that was reviewed in "A Southern Review" the author who very well maybe be famous, and even considered a great author of her time, personally not sure this girl really don't follow such things because normally the people she thinks writes well have never been heard of before, consistently used the term "getting their lumps" meaning taking what comes to them or handling what they must. Think of the expression they made their bed now they must lie in it. I'm sure if that book was every analyzed by a literary professor he or she may say J.A. Jance used it for x y or z reasons. But really couldn't it just be it's an expression Jance grew up with? If that is the case why or why must several of her character's use it? Isn't it the point of writing to give your character's their own personality? To take on a file of their own? I mean yes in the 90's "wuz up?" was a common expression but if you were reading a book based in that time period would you expect every person in there to say "wuz up?" No, not everyone talk like that. Did the screen writer for "Tombstone" Make every character use "Well ain't that Daisy" or "I'll be you your huckleberry"? No these were signature phrased used by Doc Holiday even though they were common expressions of the time period. By no means is this reviewer suggesting that author's need to talk a page out of screen writer's book, because she has been reminded over and over again that "that would be an insult" but she believes it's time to share thoughts and ideas with your counterparts. Make each character their own. And for goodness shakes people if you're going to turn a book into a movie at least find out what the general population likes about the book and don't cut that out! I.e. Alice's background in "Twilight" Down here, and maybe it's the fact that Alice was originally from the south but the team Alice/team Jasper shirts that have been floating around in these parts would give some sort of indication that the fact you haven't said one word of Alice's past a big no no.

Ok so this entry is probably leaving more questions then answers and it was a small vent about frustration. At least it leaves you with some food for thought.