Juxtabook's versions of Famous for the Wrong Book

There's a very nice piece on The Guardian by John Self called Famous for the wrong book. It points out that many authors are famous for a book that is not necessarily their best. A key example being, "why has a title like Louis de Bernières' Captain Corelli's Mandolin risen to the top, overshadowing his much better earlier novels such as Senor Vivo & The Coca Lord ?" Something with which I would agree entirely.

I am tempted to get controversial right away by suggesting that Joyce's short story collection Dubliners is far better than anything else for which he is better known, but that might be my anti-modernist prejudices so let's not go there. Mrs Gaskell however is so very much more than Cranford - Wives and Daughters is my favourite though as she did not finish that maybe it does not count. North and South is superb too.

At the other end of the literary scale, fond though I am of Stephenie Meyer's sparkly vampires, The Host is a better book than any of the Twilight series. It is psychologically fascinating and deals with the problems caused by a society being too perfect, not Stepford Wives exactly, but lacking the anger and selfishness that makes the human world interesting. Where would fiction be without conflict? The Host would make a great holiday read.

The premise works with poetry too. Whilst Sylvia Plath's "Daddy" is great for a dramatic reading to a class of 15 year olds it is by no means her best work. I much prefer "Morning Song" (the one that begins "Love set you going like a fat gold watch".) Similarly Larkin's much quoted This Be the Verse is far from his best, though as I have a reputation to maintain as Larkin's most ardent disliker I daren't offer an opinion on what is his best. If anyone would like to recommend something really, really, really good by Larkin you could ruin my 20+ years loath-affair with his work, a loathing which has given me enormous pleasure. Disliking Joyce's best known works, by comparison, is quite boring!

It occurs to me that, as many of us are put off an author after reading the best known work, perhaps we could share some lesser known highlights from well known authors. For me Anita Brookner fell dismally with Hotel du Lac. Is this really her best or can you recommend something else? Similarly I've twice read The Ghost Road by Pat Barker trying to get the point. Is there a better Barker than her Regeneration triliogy? Any thoughts there? And which writers do you think suffer for being famous for the wrong book?

Comments

[Jane]

I'm glad you think Hotel du Lac is not her best: I tried (and tried) to read this years ago and have avoided everything else by her since.

[Carola Huttmann]

I totally agree with you about 'Hotel du Lac'. I could never bring myself to read any of Anita Brookner's later books because of it.

I much preferred Yann Martel's 'Beatrice and Virgil' than the overhyped (in my opinion) 'Life of Pi'. Definitely a question of the wrong book there, as far as I'm concerned.

[Harriet]

Wordsworth is a perfect example of this -- everybody knows, and many dislike, Daffodils and judge him on this when his Prelude, Tintern Abbey, Immortality Ode are wonderful poems.

[Teresa]

I liked Hotel Du Lac well enough (and it's the only Brookner I've read), but I've heard lots of Brookner fans say that it isn't her best. Totally agree with you about Gaskell and North and South.

I'd argue that Margaret Atwood's realistic fiction (especially Cat's Eye, The Robber Bride) is head and shoulders above The Handmaid's Tale and her more recent dystopian stuff that seems to get all the attention. And C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces is far more interesting than the Narnia books. (But perhaps it's not fair to compare his adult fiction with his children's books.)

[Lucy]

Oh no! I just bought Hotel du Lac!...I hope it doesn't put me off.

As for Louis de Bernieres, I completely agree. I haven't read Senor Vivo yet but The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts just blows Captain Corelli out of the water.

[Yvette]

Speaking of vampires, I'd like to recommend the vampire book for people who don't generally read them: SUNSHINE by Robin McKinley.

I'm not a vampire enthusiast, but I loved this book.

I never could get over the subject matter in the Tom Rob Smith book. Never read it. I tried, but failed. Still, it was interesting to read your post.

[Lyn]

I enjoyed the Regeneration trilogy but I loved Double Vision by Pat Barker, about a war correspondent back from Afghanistan. Although maybe I was influenced by having it read to me on audio by the lovely Robert Glenister. No, it really was an excellent book!

[Dark Puss]

I'm certainly in no position to recommend anything literary as "really, really good", but I have always liked Larkin's poem "The Whitsun Weddings". Now you can tell me why I shouldn't!

As to famous for the wrong book, I have always preferred George Orwell's essays to his books and the same goes for Virginia Woolf too.

[paul magrs]

That's a really thought-provoking idea - and one i'm sure is true. My favourite Pat Barker is the very early, 'Union Street'.