[touisteur]

One of the worst, and best reading experiences I get is anything long-form Frédéric Beigbeder. It's all over the place, always too much, showing off (both in style, dialogues, plots...), inconsistent, I find myself shaking my head or sighing most of the book, every damn time.

And then, the bastard manages to turn his stories around and do something often good, sometimes great of it. Not sure whether it's on purpose or he's just a short-story stretching too much... But if you read most of it, it's very very bad. But add the endings or the small moments of grace and suddenly it's great. Ugh.

[j7ake]

Are the English translations as good as the original French?

[touisteur]

No idea. I should look one day. I really hated most José Saramago for a long time until I leveled up in Portuguese and went to read in the original and... I would add shitty translations to the hefty list of crap horrible terrible books. Most Bulgakov translations, I guess, too. I hear I'm supposed to enjoy and understand some of it, one day, with a good translation...

Edit: I worry that they won't translate well, no. Edit2: I think he got inspired by Don Delillo a bit, so you might get a taste there (I remember feeling very much similar ending his books).