Well, that's how it goes.
I had a conversation with a customer who said The Road has a happy ending (I peeked, it sorta does) and that it was very rewarding. I thought about giving it another go but remembered all the "dark literature" I read in my 20's - The Beats, the drug addicts, the sexual underground, transgressive fiction - and felt been there, done that.
The Pulitzer pick doesn't suprise me; Oprah does. While she likes dark subject in her reading, I thought this was too literary, too difficult for her bookclub. We sold The Road like crazy the first few days it was announced as her new bookclub pick and as her housefrau fans bought it I kept wondering what their reaction would be once they cracked open the book and started on that journey across the blighted landscape.
One customer came in looking for "the new Oprah book" last week and as we were checking her out, she told us how she hated some of the dark, depressing books Oprah picked. I am not a used car salesman. If you ask me how good a book is, I will tell you my opinion or critical response. I warned her "this is pretty bleak, very dark" but it was very well written and very literary. That didn't stop her (good for her) and she promised to tell me what she thought.
