This is a book review about a book that shall remain nameless. For the past few years, I have been doing some reading on how to become a better writer. One of the books I read is: “The First Five Pages: A Writer’s guide to staying out of the Rejection Pile” by Noah Lukeman. He makes an excellent point, echoed by other writers, that it is necessary to hook the reader early and essentially pull him through the work. As a reader, I concur with this. In the book I am reviewing here, I am on page fifty and I still don’t know what the book is about. Nothing has happened. The library opens in three hours and the book is going back and replacements will be found. This book has been highly recommended and is written by a Pulitzer Prize winning author. If I mention the name, you would likely say: “how could you not like that book? What is wrong with you”?
This is not my first experience of having a problem with a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist. Two things could be at work here. The Prize doesn’t mean the story will be interesting or I have an internal rebelliousness against that which is supposed to be good. Or maybe I just randomly picked two Prize winning authors who maybe didn’t deserve a prize.
Pete's Wisdom 