November Failures

I've talked before about books you are "supposed" to read and books you given up on, so I thought it might make for an interesting monthly discussion. In November I picked up two books that I would put in the category "books you should read" and inevitably didn't finish them.

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace
The Office is one of my favorite TV shows and Jim (John Krasinski), who I love, recently adapted and directed the movie version of Brief Interviews. He is also one of the narrators for the audiobook version, so I decided to give it a listen. Yes, sometimes this is how I decide what books I read/listen to. Anyway, I didn't even get to Jim's portion of the narration. I found it a little weird. Random short stories about men of various ages, talking about various things (although sex seemed to be a frequent topic). I didn't get it and it seemed a little pervy. What was the point?

The Land of Green Plums by Herta Muller
Muller is a Romanian-born German novelist and just won the Nobel Prize for literature, so I thought I should read one of her books. People in other countries have complained that Americans are so isolated when it comes to literature, so I thought it would be nice to broaden my selections. This did not go well. I didn't get very far. The language is very poetic, but there doesn't seem to be much happening. And what was all the talk about barbers and nail-clippers? I'm sure it was significant and meant something, but it was completely beyond me. I seem to remember trying to read one of French novelist J.M.G. Le Clezio's novels last year (he won last year's Nobel Prize) and not getting very far with it either.