Our club split over a first person narrator and I was in the middle

Last month in Austin, I picked a novel told entirely from one character's mind, and half the group loved the intimacy while the other half called it claustrophobic and self indulgent. We spent 40 minutes going back and forth, and two people nearly walked out over the unreliable narrator reveal. Has anyone else had a book choice turn into a personal attack on your taste, or do we just need thicker skins?

2 comments

2 Comments

hernandez.finley24d ago

...honestly it sounds like y'all need a break from each other more than a new book. I get being passionate about what you read, but nearly walking out over a narrator feels like the actual problem was something else entirely. Maybe it's the heat, or someone's been annoyed all year, but a book is just words on a page. If you can't disagree about that without it getting personal, thicker skins are the least of your worries.

emma_clark22d ago

Man, you hit the nail on the head there. It's like the book was just the excuse to finally blow up about something. I've seen it happen with my own friends over board games or even what to have for dinner. The real fight is usually about who feels unheard or whose opinion gets dismissed all the time. When you're both already worn down, any tiny thing can turn into a big deal, and the narrator just happened to be the last straw. Maybe they should take a week off from each other before even thinking about another book club meeting.