The most dour author you've read?

[Novelist in Paradise]

Mine would have to be Russell Banks. Not a funny bone in him. (Although I've only read his collection of short stories).

You know, I reckon that one way to make your writing stand out in the slush is to use humor. I don't mean comedic writing, I mean, for example, sly sardonic humor in a noirish thriller to Anne Tyler's type of character and situational humor. It's hard to do, but if done well (and I reckon it's another aspect of craft that can be learned), you're a step ahead.

Humor also contributes a good deal to that mystical thing called "voice."

My back's killing me.

[Scarlett_156]

Without a single doubt, Joyce Carol Oates.

[Sean D. Schaffer]

George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm, comes to my mind... as does the majority of what I've read of his writing.

[Jamesaritchie]

I like a bit of humor in a novel, but I don't think lack of humor makes either the writer or the novel dour. I certainly don't find either Russell Banks or Joyce Carol Oates dour in any way. But maybe we have different definitions of the word.

[aruna]

You might have an author who is dour, and his books are full of humour. VS Naipaul is like that. He seems a most unpleasant and rather cantankerous air to him, but his early books at least are very funny.

[travelgal]

Colin (I think) Falconer. I read 'Venom' and another of his books; although riviting, they were so bleak and grim, you have to be in a certain mood to read them or you'll be depressed. Even when the bad guys get their comeuppance, even when it's poetic justice, his worldview is so cynical, they still get away with too much.

[farfromfearless]

Gregory Maguire, author of "Wicked". In my opinion, a master of "Happily never-after".

[Simon Woodhouse]

I had a job to get through Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. There weren't a lot of laughs.

[PeeDee]

Dan Brown. He bores me to tears, and I find him if not necessarily dour then certainly very uptight. Since he currently sells two rain forests' worth of books every ten minutes, this must just be my view and not a common one. Hence, I shall stay away from his books.

[jbal]

Steinbeck.

[alleycat]

Dan Brown. He bores me to tears, and I find him if not necessarily dour then certainly very uptight. Since he currently sells two rain forests' worth of books every ten minutes, this must just be my view and not a common one. Hence, I shall stay away from his books.
I'm with you. I tried to read The da Vinci Code and just couldn't.

And I've never been able to finish anything by Henry James.

[Silver King]

Steinbeck.
JB, have you tried Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday or Travels with Charley? These are examples that show a lighter side of Steinbeck which may surprise you.

[jbal]

No, just the Pearl, Grapes of Wrath, and one more that escapes me at the moment.

[rugcat]

How about Thomas Hardy? Jude The Obscure is just one long, unrelenting series of unfortunate events.

[PeeDee]

No, just the Pearl, Grapes of Wrath, and one more that escapes me at the moment.

The one you are thinking of is perhaps Of Mice and Men. I think that might be it. Unless it's not. Whichcase, perhaps you should try Travels with Charley which is wonderful. A very good book. It's horrible that I have to make five related sentences here. It's killing me almost as much as my lack of idiom.

[Elektra]

Hamlet *and then everybody dies*

[PeeDee]

Hey, Elektra. You just ruined the ending to all the Shakespear plays. Most of them, anyway. Certainly a majority. Sincerely, Pete.

[Elektra]

At least they're forewarned

[farfromfearless]

Hamlet *and then everybody dies*

Hamlet was brilliant. I love it when everyone dies and leaves the rest standing around looking like lost idiots. Pure brilliance.

[deltasierra]

I had a job to get through Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. There weren't a lot of laughs.

This is who I was thinking of, too. I couldn't get through Crime and Punishment.

[Elektra]

Tolstoi, too. I blame the weather.

[Matt Lipp]

Jane Austen.

URGH

[Elektra]

Jane Austen.

URGH


WHAT?!?!?! *gathers together tar and feathers, and checks her supply of pitchforks*

[Novelist in Paradise]

Jane Austen.

URGH

Double that WHAt?$#%! This macho surfer dude, who read Jane Austen's Sense&Sensibility and Pride&Prejudice last year for the first time, thought she was terrific, and part of her most excellent terrificness was a sly sarcastic sense of humor.

[TheIT]

Albert Camus, The Stranger.

[Silver King]

Albert Camus, The Stranger.
Great example. And his buddy, Sartre, is no barrel of laughs, either.

[aadams73]

Jane Austen.

URGH

You do know what dour means, right?

[Bryan Reardon]

One of my favorites, Ayn Rand. I got a little depressed just answering the question.

[Higgins]

Double that WHAt?$#%! This macho surfer dude, who read Jane Austen's Sense&Sensibility and Pride&Prejudice last year for the first time, thought she was terrific, and part of her most excellent terrificness was a sly sarcastic sense of humor.

"Dour" doesn't seem like a good way to characterize Jane Austen even if you don't like reading her.

Bitter...maybe in the best spots, but never dour even in the worst patches of her rather lovely prose.

[Shadow_Ferret]

Dour? I can't think of one Scottish author.

[Manderley]

You do know what dour means, right?

I don't. And I'm not getting any closer to understanding what it means from reading this thread either.

My dictionary tells me it's either sullen and gloomy or severe and stern. But in my world, being stern is quite different from being sullen, so I'm at a loss here.

Anyone fancy explaining a wee foreigner what ya'll mean by dour?

[BruceJ]

I don't. And I'm not getting any closer to understanding what it means from reading this thread either.

My dictionary tells me it's either sullen and gloomy or severe and stern. But in my world, being stern is quite different from being sullen, so I'm at a loss here.

Anyone fancy explaining a wee foreigner what ya'll mean by dour?

I think of dour as pretty much synonymous with humorless. I agree that Steinbeck shows both ends of the spectrum really well. Add The Moon is Down to the list of depressing ones, but the frog hunt in Tortilla Flat is a gem. :)

[Bartholomew]

I don't. And I'm not getting any closer to understanding what it means from reading this thread either.

My dictionary tells me it's either sullen and gloomy or severe and stern. But in my world, being stern is quite different from being sullen, so I'm at a loss here.

Anyone fancy explaining a wee foreigner what ya'll mean by dour?

Foriegner? o.O *POKE*

...unless you're a completely different person than I thought.

Jack London's "Seawolf" is the most Dour book I've ever read, possibly excluding Anna Karininna.

[kwwriter]

"Flowers in the Attic" chick...um...her name escapes me.

[steveg144]

Michel Houellebecq. That being said, I like his stuff a lot.

[Silver King]

"Flowers in the Attic" chick...um...her name escapes me.
V.C. Andrews. There's a thread (http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40281&highlight=V.C.+Andrews) which discusses the book and Andrews in the Roundtable forum.

[Marlowe]

Hey, Elektra. You just ruined the ending to all the Shakespear plays. Most of them, anyway. Certainly a majority. Sincerely, Pete.

Um, there's only one sentence in this entire post. Not to be a tattle tale or anything, but isn't that breaking your own rules?

[zorasaura]

Pedro Paramo. That was something else. It's told from the perspective of ghosts that are stuck in the ground in some netherworld. They reminisce over their tragic life in fragments and the reader gets the overall impression that everyone on the plantation was deliberately starved to death by the callous owner.

[zorasaura]

oh wait, the books have to be sad and funny- scratch pedro paramo- that's only sad. Sad and funny? hmm. dickens can make you laugh when he is writing about some unfortunate orphan of the early industrial age.