Is Amor Towles a children’s writer? The second novel of his I’m trying to read is killing me with the cloying, saccharine tone, pompously delivered platitudes, the one-sided, completely flat characters with the emotional complexity of an amoeba, and the didactic employment of “everyday magic.” But I thought about it, and both books of his that I find indigestible today would have worked for me when I was 8.
I don’t understand how these novels can be bestsellers. They read very easily and require zero thinking, but the author hasn’t met a truism that he doesn’t like, and it soon gets tiresome. I’m currently trying to get through The Lincoln Highway and realizing that I’m several decades too old for this stuff.
“I don’t understand how these novels can be bestsellers. They read very easily and require zero thinking”.
There’s your question, and there’s your answer.
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Yep.
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What was the other Amor Towles novel you read? I read A Gentleman in Moscow a few years ago and thought it quite good.
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Dick Clark: “So what do you think of Bucket of Oates’s latest hit single?”
American Bandstand dancer: “Wellllll … it has a nice beat and it’s easy to dance to.”
Dick Clark, as if he hasn’t heard this all before during the previous episode, leads the dancers and audience to applause.
Amor Towels (and I refuse to correct that spelling) writes for the American Bandstand audience of readers.
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