cherold reviewed Set This House on Fire by William Styron
Review of 'Set This House on Fire' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I see a lot of people here like this book, but I don't get why. The first half is unpleasant though absorbing. Styron seems to think it is interesting for characters to rant eccentrically about whatever is on their mind, but I would disagree, and I soon started skipping all rants. The story is intriguing, and for a while the book was kind of interesting, as we see the naive narrator come to see the truth of his pretentious friend. Half way through, the book becomes fairly unreadable as it changes focus to a different character. This begins with an entire chapter of the sort of rant that I found so unpleasant, and then proceeds through a tedious accounting of an unpleasant and dull tortured artist type. I tried reading this for a while but it was so annoying that I just skimmed the second half to see how everything …
I see a lot of people here like this book, but I don't get why. The first half is unpleasant though absorbing. Styron seems to think it is interesting for characters to rant eccentrically about whatever is on their mind, but I would disagree, and I soon started skipping all rants. The story is intriguing, and for a while the book was kind of interesting, as we see the naive narrator come to see the truth of his pretentious friend. Half way through, the book becomes fairly unreadable as it changes focus to a different character. This begins with an entire chapter of the sort of rant that I found so unpleasant, and then proceeds through a tedious accounting of an unpleasant and dull tortured artist type. I tried reading this for a while but it was so annoying that I just skimmed the second half to see how everything was tied up, which it was in a perfunctory fashion.
I suppose this is good for Styron fans. I've never read any of his books before and certainly never will again.
