The Good, the Bad, and the Very Bad?

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All authors write some novels that are better than others, but occasionally there’s an unusually large gap in quality between a specific author’s books.

(At least in my opinion; a book I dislike might of course be liked by others, and vice versa. 🙂 )

I thought about this when recently reading Jeffrey Eugenides’ 2011 novel The Marriage Plot until giving up on it after about 100 pages. I loved that author’s 2002 novel Middlesex – which I thought was a brilliant look at a gender-confused character, the immigration experience, and more. It deservedly won a Pulitzer Prize.

The Marriage Plot? Almost plot-less as well as boring – and filled with spoiled, whiny, unlikable, pretentious, annoying characters at an Ivy League university. One Amazon reviewer drolly and accurately described these fictional collegians as “self-absorbed, over-educated noodles with cartoon parents.” Also, through his characters, Eugenides did way too much name-dropping of authors and books to beat us over the head with how well-read he was.

In short, I found the gap between those two novels astonishing – though, as I said before, others might feel differently.

Other huge gaps I’ve found in books by the same author? The first example that came to mind was between Jack London’s A Daughter of the Snows (1902) and London’s The Call of the Wild (1903). In the first novel, I admired London’s attempt to create a strong female protagonist, but the writing in general and the dialogue in particular were laughably clunky. Then, a year after that amateurish effort, came a stone-cold classic that couldn’t have been written better. Here was a case, also seen with some other authors, of a young novelist struggling to find writing confidence and a distinct writing voice before those both kick in – which can happen gradually or, as with London, seemingly overnight.

Large quality gaps between an author’s books can also have a late-career element. For instance, the chasm between Willa Cather’s exquisitely written My Antonia (1918) or Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) and her abysmal Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940) is stunning. Something like that can be caused by factors such as ill health or running out of ideas after penning many novels.

I also noticed this late-career phenomenon with Martin Cruz Smith: his Gorky Park (1981) and its first seven sequels are excellent, but eighth sequel The Siberian Dilemma (2019) is…ugh. It didn’t help that the author was dealing with advanced Parkinson’s disease at that point. 

And with Jack Finney: Time and Again (1970) is a riveting time-travel classic, but its sequel From Time to Time (1995) is pretty bad. Perhaps not a coincidence that Finney was in his mid-80s in 1995 and died that same year.

Of course, other reasons for a great author writing a bad book – say, in mid-career – could include a temporary health crisis, other challenging stuff going on in her or his life, having to rush a book for some reason, etc. Or sometimes a dud happens inexplicably; authors are human like everyone else. (So I’m told. 🙂 )

Staying with a novel and a sequel, Kristin Hannah released the terrific Firefly Lane – about two very different friends – in 2008. Then came the 2013 follow-up Fly Away, which I found to be a yawn (though not awful). I’ve read 17 novels by Hannah – one of my favorite contemporary authors — and Fly Away is the only one I didn’t love. (My very favorites of hers are the most recently published four: The Women, The Four Winds, The Great Alone, and The Nightingale.)

And Darryl Brock came out with the fabulous, should-be-better-known baseball/time-travel novel If I Never Come Back in 1990. Twelve years later, his Two in the Field sequel was a near-dud.

Going back to the 19th-century, Wilkie Collins wrote lengthy superb novels such as 1860’s The Woman in White. One rare Collins misstep was A Rogue’s Life, which I struggled to get through despite it being short. But I did finish it, unlike The Marriage Plot. 🙂

Your thoughts about, and examples of, this topic?

Misty the cat says: “This is fan fact, not fan fiction. It’s hot in August.”

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for the book features a talking cat: 🙂

I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…

…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more, including many encounters with celebrities.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece – about a tone-deaf hire and a long-overdue audit — is here.

62 thoughts on “The Good, the Bad, and the Very Bad?”

    • Thank you, Ada! I think it’s no coincidence that the words “author” and “anxiety” start with the same letter. 🙂

      “My Antonia” is my favorite Willa Cather novel. Somewhat autobiographical, although Cather is “represented” by a male character (which might reflect the author being LGBTQ+ in real life at a time when it was difficult to live openly with that orientation).

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  2. Dave, great discussion topic and lots of good thoughts. Bookmarked 😎. I’m really interested in the depth of an author’s creative well… If they’re drawing on their own experiences, or observations of friends and family, I guess it really depends on the breadth/depth of them and whether or not there’s something even storyworthy (vs sponge worthy 😉) to write about let alone produce more. “Write what you know” ~ Hemingway

    I think this spills over into other creative fields… Like Christopher Cross’s 1980 debut album when he burst on the scene with four top 20 songs, Album of the Year and Song of the Year… and then what…Or M Night Shyamalan with “The Sixth Sense.” Orson Welles and “Citizen Kane.” Must be hard to set the high water mark on your first foray…and everything else is judged by the first.

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    • Thank you, Michele! I’ve never read “Go Set A Watchman,” but I’ve also heard it was an early draft of “To Kill A Mockingbird” (with that draft depicting Atticus Finch in a less-flattering light).

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  5. Dave, great thought-provoking topic and lots of good answers. Bookmarked 😎.

    I’m interest in the well concept… if stories are based on an author’s own experiences or observations, is there a finite amount of content that can be retained., or enough there that’s even story worthy? (vs sponge worthy😉)? Certainly characters can be based on people we know, but they’re fixed with respect to the plot… so for example, James Michener has a big a

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  6. So interesting, Dave! I’ve not read either of the Eugenides books, but your thoughts give me pause. How IS it that one book can be so, so stellar and another oh-so lacking? Curious. I wonder if there’s some backstory about the process Eugenides undertook in writing “The Marriage Plot”, some hint about the slippage in its appeal? When you say you called it quits after 100 pages, I know something’s amiss. My sense of you is that you are a generous reader, willing to hang in…as long as possible. Oh – and one more thing! This made me giggle:

    One Amazon reviewer drolly and accurately described these fictional collegians as “self-absorbed, over-educated noodles with cartoon parents.”

    Enough said. “over-educated noodles”. I get the picture.

    Thanks as always, for providing Sunday enjoyment! 💝💝💝

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  7. Dave – a fabulous topic and great follow-up discussion. Your post made me think about why we return to particular authors in the first place. Years ago I read several of Leon Uris’s novels, each taking me into a very different period of history. That’s when I began to feel that an author we read again and again becomes something of a reading companion. I think that we come to recognize the voice and trust the storyteller, which makes the “disappointing book” all the more surprising.

    I also wonder how much a writer’s circumstances shape each book. That is age, health, experience, deadlines and even the expectations of readers and publishers enter the equation. Fitzgerald once wrote, “You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.” Perhaps what a writer has to say, and how successfully they can say it, changes throughout a lifetime.

    I am learning not to expect consistency from writers when I don’t expect it from my life. We change, our circumstances change, and the world around us changes. The books themselves become markers of where a writer happened to be, creatively and personally, at different moments along the way. Just a few thoughts!!!

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    • Thank you, Rebecca! Many great — and tolerant — thoughts! So true that authors, like non-authors, aren’t machines that are completely consistent each time. (Even machines can have consistency problems. 🙂 ) It’s impressive when some novelists come within shouting distance of doing excellent work each and every time. And of course the occasional so-so book by a top-notch author might still be better than a lot of other books.

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      • Thank you, Dave. I think that is why I remain loyal to certain authors even when an occasional book doesn’t quite work for me. Over the years, they have given me the gift of time well spent in their company. And increasingly I think about the other side of that relationship too. That is whenever someone chooses to read something I have written, they are giving me something they can never get back, their time. So it is a gift that I treasure.

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        • Beautifully said, Rebecca! Yes, it’s a mutual experience between author and reader. And I totally agree that it’s easy and right to remain loyal to an author who gives one a lot of reading pleasure even if an occasional book misfires.

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    • Thank you, Darlene! I also loved “The Thorn Birds,” and liked Colleen McCullough’s “Morgan’s Run” a lot — the only two novels of hers I’ve read. I did hear that her “The Ladies of Missalonghi” was consciously or subconsciously plagiarized from L.M. Montgomery’s wonderful novel “The Blue Castle.”

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  9. An interesting theme for consideration, Dave. When I read novels by my favorite authors, I tend to be forgiving if the storyline is not as good as an earlier novel. Not every book can be a bestseller. Not every story impacts readers in the same way. For me, getting past their first book that I read is the real test.

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  10. I guess sometimes on a later novel the well can dry, equally as you say there’s wells that are dry already at book one but the second book is like the well is overflowing. Maybe in these latter instances it just takes time for a voice to be found.

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  11. I usually find series that keep milking out a good pilot book returning to a predictable and, in the end, boring plotting schedule. I blame partially the publishers for this phenomena: they had a bestseller and they know they have a buying public, so they pressure the writer to produce one more, and then another one,… up to the point that when the same writer comes with a fresh idea for another novel, they just point blanc refuse to have a look at it. That’s probably the moment when writers fall out with their agents and publishers.

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    • Thank you, Shaharee! Yes, some series shouldn’t be series or go on for too many books, but you’re right that most publishing companies are money-focused and a number of authors are tempted to go with a proven formula. I do think some series maintain their quality or even get better as they go along (among those that come to mind are series by J.K. Rowling, Val McDermid, and Sue Grafton).

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      • Now that I come to think of it, Stephen King is usually a resourceful (bestselling) writer but I found that the Black Tower series declined towards the end. Books 1 through 4 are a cohesive, tight blend of dark fantasy and Western tropes while books 5, 6, and 7 alienated me from the tale. He inserted himself into the narrative as a literal character (excessively self-indulgent), rushed the plot with Anticlimactic Villain Resolutions, and after spending over 20 years waiting for the conclusion, the ending felt like an ultimate punch to the face that lacked true finality or closure.

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  12. In the case of professional writers who need to generate income, it’s understandable that some of their work would be substandard. Maybe their hearts aren’t always into what they are writing.

    I love to write and have been doing so since my early teens. I’m also an amateur author. My only published novel received very complimentary reviews, and I have been urged to write a sequel. I did try once, but soon realized that I just didn’t have it in me. Either I didn’t want to put in the necessary effort, or the storyline didn’t captivate me. Maybe both were true. Anyway, it has been collecting dust ever since.

    I did learn something, though. A cousin of mine, a retired commercial airline pilot, asked me for some advice about writing. He had been interviewed in a podcast, and the story he shared was both fascinating and intriguing. I told him that it was great material for a nonfiction book, and that I would help him with his writing. But to consider such a project, I suggested he look deeply into himself to see if he had the desire. From the heart comes great stories. The written text can always be cleaned up later.

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    • Thank you, Robert! Excellent point about a writer having to make a living. Those authors who take, say, a decade to complete a novel (such as Donna Tartt) often have the luxury of a good income from an earlier book or books, a day job, or a spouse helping to support them.

      And I appreciate you sharing your experience — what you’ve done and decided not to do. If an author isn’t “feeling” a sequel, perhaps it’s best for it not be published.

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  13. Very interesting, dear Dave!
    That qualitative gap is always evident, whether it’s a decline in quality after the second book, a hastily written sequel, or a decline in the final stages of a career.

    To add another example to your list, in Italian literature, Carlo Collodi is the author of The Adventures of Pinocchio, an impeccable and universally beloved masterpiece. Yet, almost no one remembers his other works, such as Giannettino’s Journey Through Italy (Il viaggio per l’Italia di Giannettino).
    They were written as government-commissioned school textbooks, and are are incredibly dry, moralistic, and boring, showing a huge gap compared to the dark, magical humor of Pinocchio.

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  14. Very many thanks, Dave for your excellent comparisons of novels:) I have just realized that I may have read a book and liked it very much, such as “Middlesex” by Geffrey Eugenides, but afterwards not have read other books by the same writer.I am therefore unable to make these difficult distinctions! I remember, however, that one of the books I very much loved is “The Hare with Amber Eyes” by Edmund de Waal ( A rich tale of the pleasure and pains of what it is to be human)and I therefore think to read one of this writer’s other books to find out more.

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  15. Hi Dave, a quick note about this. I would mention Dan Brown, since I have several of his. I enjoyed The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, but Digital Fortress and Deception Point were rather boring I felt, although I did finish both. Now I wonder why I finish those. I wouldn’t bother now. I think it is about age… hmm.

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    • Thank you, Chris! An interesting example! I read “The Da Vinci Code” and found it ingenious but at times badly written, so I never tried more of Dan Brown’s work.

      I hear you about finishing or not finishing novels. I used to almost always slog on to the end, but, like you, I now drop books more quickly. (Figuratively drop books; my toes are safe. 🙂 )

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  16. I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I had a hard time finishing the final book in Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast books, Titus Alone. Titus was never a likeable character, and once he’s left Gormenghast Castle, which is fascinating, I found little to interest me.

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  17. I think Misty is going to have words with you when she wakes and sees this video! I can almost hear her asking, “How would you like it if I posted a video of you completely relaxed, sound asleep?”

    Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress was a winner (for me), and I liked some of his others, but Every Man a King had too many twists, turns and subplots. More is not always better.

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    • Thank you, Madeline! Excellent point about Misty; I invaded his privacy. 😐

      I appreciate the Walter Mosley mention! I’ve read both those novels, and, like you, did enjoy “Devil in a Blue Dress” more. But I also kind of enjoyed “Every Man a King” (and the first book in that series, “Down the River unto the Sea”). People can definitely react to books differently. 🙂

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      • Two books I recently thought were ok but several friends loved were Theo of Golden (the mentally ill woman who was living on the streets and is remarkably transformed by Theo’s kindness?) and Remarkably Bright Creatures (I wish I had an octopus who would find my lost keys). I guess I am too pragmatical/realistic for some authors.

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  18. I would cite that quality gap between Larry McMurtry’s “The Last Picture Show” and “Texasville.” The writing in the latter was much more polished than “The Last Picture Show,” but Texasville felt contrive and was completely lacking in heart.

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