Wow. Stephen King went off a little bit on a couple big name authors in a recent interview for USA WEEKEND. Among the choice quotes:
“Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people. … The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good … Somebody who’s a terrific writer who’s been very, very successful is Jodi Picoult. You’ve got Dean Koontz, who can write like hell. And then sometimes he’s just awful. It varies. James Patterson is a terrible writer but he’s very very successful.”
I’m kind of torn. Part of me is all, “if you don’t have anything nice to say…” But then another part of me is pleased to see someone with a brain come out with a strong opinion about something instead of being political.
For the record, I’m not the biggest King fan in the world, but was around 8th/9th grade. I still maintain that although he has a couple good books, he is not a great novelist. He is, however, a brilliant and underrated short story writer.
I think Mr. King has confused the dumptruck parade of money to his house with talent. I haven’t read a ton of his stuff but what I have read never ends well. He can’t finish a story to save his life. And just when he’s hooked me with a character or plot twist, he floors it and sends the whole thing hurtling over the edge.
I’m not going to be picking up a Twilight book anytime soon but Stephen King needs to realize that literary giant doesn’t equal literary genius.
I think Mr. King is saying exactly what needs to be said. Yes JK Rowling is a brilliant writer and deserves everything that she is given at the moment, Dean Koontz in my eyes is quite often a marvelous story teller, needs work on his writing once in a while but not too often. I haven’t read anything from James Patterson or Jodi Picoult so I have nothing to say on that subject.
As for Stephanie Meyer, apparently she can write something that will please a massive number of teenage girls and a few women that mostly just want to be hold on to their youth. However, I have read 60% of Twilight and couldn’t force myself to finish the story. It is filled with terrible grammar, misspelled words and has a story that you can pretty much tell what is going to happen for the entire series from the first 50 pages.
Stephen King is an amazing writer, yes he does foul up on endings and the odd plot but any writer will have their weak point. I don’t think that he has let the money go to his head instead he is just saying what needed to be said. Stephenie Meyer in my mind should just let the money from her Twilight series come in and leave it at that, she should not be writing anymore stories.