Gore Vidal once described Moby Dick as “a very bad masterpiece,” and most readers will understand exactly what he meant. Notwithstanding the book’s mythic grandeur, that huge chapter on “the whiteness of the whale,” for instance, has to be one of the most indigestible bits of fiction ever written.
It was in the same spirit as Vidal’s observation that the LRC editorial staff planned this December’s holiday feature. We approached ten regular contributors to the magazine and asked each to tell us about some widely acclaimed book that had nevertheless failed to live up to his or her great expectations. Written works from every field and genre across the ages were eligible, but we overwhelmingly received lively condemnations of prominent modern fictions. That said, regular readers will doubtless remember the sole non-fiction entry from its prominent place in a previous list we compiled, “The LRC 100: Canada’s Most Important Books.”
So enjoy...
Andrew Potter wrote The Authenticity Hoax and, with Joseph Heath, The Rebel Sell.
Esi Edugyan is the author of The Second Life of Samuel Tyne (Vintage, 2005) and Diese Fremden (Akademie Schloss Solitude, 2007). Her second novel, Half Blood Blues (Thomas Allen, 2011), won the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Janice Gross Stein is Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management and the director of the Munk Centre for International Studies at Trinity College in the University of Toronto.
Keith Oatley is professor emeritus of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and winner of the 1994 Commonwealth Prize for Best First Novel. His most recent novel, Therefore Choose, was published in 2010 by Goose Lane. His recent books on Psychology include Such Stuff as Dreams: The Psychology of Fiction (Wiley 2011) and The Passionate Muse: Exploring Emotion in Stories (Oxford University Press 2012). He wishes to thank his colleagues Maja Djikic, Jacob Hirsch, Raymond Mar, Jennifer de la Paz, Jordan Peterson and Sara Zoeterman.
Marian Botsford Fraser is working on a book about asylum seekers in Canada.
Mark Anthony Jarman plays harmonica for a blues band in Fredericton where he teaches at the University of New Brunswick. His most recent book is My While Planet (Thomas Allen, 2008).
Mark F. Proudman works in Ottawa. He holds a doctorate in imperial history from Oxford University.
Reed Scowen, a member of the LRC’s advisory council, is the author of two books on contemporary Quebec politics. From 1978 to 1984 he and Jacques Parizeau were both members of Quebec’s National Assembly.
Suanne Kelman is professor emerita of the School of Journalism at Ryerson University. She is the author of All in the Family: A Cultural History of Family Life (Viking, 1998).
Advertisement
Advertisement