A Good Question

Kim’s review of the Time Traveler’s Wife struck a chord with me. Kim wonders if she’s out of touch with contemporary culture because she disliked the novel. To paraphrase, she also wonders why the book was written; why it is popular or well-reviewed.

I haven’t read the novel. Reviews of it were ubiquitous after its release, no doubt the result of what editors call The Big Push; lots of advanced reading copies or maybe a lucky break for the author gave it an aura of importance that resulted in the chain of events described by Kim with her gift certificate.

The result is an obviously intelligent reader feeling ripped off and possibly blaming herself for buying a book that she intensely dislikes. Her articulate and candid thoughts on the subject would never appear in the NYT or SF Chronicle where I think some gushing may have occured.

We all have a stake in this. I write novels in the hopes of seeing them published and finding an audience. I read novels that I expect to both enjoy and feel admiration for. It would be awful to have someone cheated by the experience of reading.

On a lighter note, Kim wondered if Phil, Kevin and I are guys. I assume Phil and Kevin are, but I hadn’t considered the possibility that they could be women writing under male names. Anyway, my name is David Thayer, and I am a guy.