My most recent Nook read is Love Seen From Hell by John Emil Augustine. Has anyone else read this? Anyone want to tell me why I decided to read this or why I read it to the end? I gave this book 2 stars on Goodreads. That kind of feels generous. I think that if I had known this man, I’d like it. But here I am a random stranger to the author, not knowing him, I can’t help but be a little judgemental. Pretty horrible right? He does have some redeeming qualities that made me give it a 2.
Let me tell you a little bit about the book. Augustine used to teach English at a college level, now works in a plant. He had a friend that was going through some hard times and thought “I’ve had some bad times, let me tell her my story and brighten her day.” That’s how this book and the sequel to it, Love Seen From Heartache, were born. Reading this book made me feel intrusive. He has a failed marriage, a child from that marriage, lots more failed relationships and thinks it’s cool to play in a band. (Okay, I’m assuming on the last one. But he does play in a band.) This book is to a friend. It would have worked as a book if he was more well-known. But really, who is this guy? I feel like it should have been kept as emails to a friend. But as an outsider, I had a hard time liking him. I felt bad for him at times but not long enough to end the book and say “I want to go out and have a drink with this guy”. No, I don’t want to have a drink with this guy. I do find it admirable that he wanted to stay married because of his thought process of “we said death to us part”. I thought that was admirable, but then he had a bunch of girlfriends while he was getting a divorce. Someone explain that to me.
He didn’t completely suck as a writer. He would think about all he wanted to say during his shift, sit down on his break and write. So he had time to plan through his thoughts. His style isn’t my favorite. There were no decisive chapters or parts they were kind of like emails, like he planned to keep it in that format. Instead of chapters he had headings, each a few pages long of narrative. I can’t think that this guy completely sucks at writing because he did teach English at a higher level. I looked on his site to try and get into his head and he has reviews on there from goodreads and WordPress among other places. I have mixed feelings about that. It’s cool that he reads his readers’ comments but is that the place to put them? I don’t know. I’m not a writer and I don’t plan to so why should I be critical?
I feel that I could like him. No, I don’t think so. I take that back. Anyway, I was generous and gave him a 2. I don’t recommend it. It was a complete waste of my time.
I stopped reading when I read “Well, that’s not the story, really.” I thought, if that wasn’t the story, then why did I have to read all that.
It’s great to hear about what people enjoy reading, but it is useful to hear what they were disappointed in as well.
Great point.