tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087283544997030082.post6369517966640038423..comments2024-02-14T20:17:15.115+00:00Comments on Chertsey: Most overrated? P.D. JamesSarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759448161130667128noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087283544997030082.post-55958008220235624522020-01-03T12:01:23.751+00:002020-01-03T12:01:23.751+00:00Fully agree that P.D. James is a terrible writer, ...Fully agree that P.D. James is a terrible writer, for the reasons you've given. Just finished A Certain Justice (I live in a remote place with few books): bad plot, plodding, unending descriptions of furniture and people's lips and eyes, trite tropes resulting in caricatures not characters, implausible psychological development (Octavia!) and the novella-long letter-within-the-novel from Janet Carpenter through the priest to Dalgliesh - all truly unbelievable. Oh, and isn't Dalgliesh just the Perfect Person? No faults, strong and silent, a detective and A POET in one! I've tried 2 Jameses now, and that's it.<br />Anybody looking for a fantastic novelist? Larry McMurtry!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03326929286182413637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087283544997030082.post-34451229481099299712011-12-28T11:23:45.753+00:002011-12-28T11:23:45.753+00:00Currently reading "Death comes to Pemberley&q...Currently reading "Death comes to Pemberley" - which is irritating me mightly. Yes, for me at least, nothing can ever aspire to come close to "Pride and Prejudice", but I had heard so much about how good PD James is/was, that I thought it might be OK as a starter to reading her work. It's not so much the characterisations, etc. etc. It's the bright moonlight while it's raining heavily that is jarring particularly. I know that you can have scudding clouds on a windy moonlight night, but to me it is incongruous to have characters with stinging rain in their faces while they search by moonlight (or at least doing some rather better scene setting). A good novel shouldn't have you irritated by small things, you shouldn't notice them - it should flow seamlessly. It's like those films where someone opens the front door to someone and they both just walk into the living room - I'm left thinking, "will someone go and shut that door?"CathFhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12183226376253252630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5087283544997030082.post-20669231616841117752011-12-27T16:14:18.784+00:002011-12-27T16:14:18.784+00:00I agree that the books of hers that I've read ...I agree that the books of hers that I've read are unsatisfying (though I've enjoyed some of the TV adaptations) but the author herself is very charming when I've heard her being interviewed on the radio - maybe that wins over all!<br /><br />Hope you had a good Christmas and here's to a fine year's cruising in 2012.<br /><br />Sue, nb Indigo DreamAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com