A good friend of mine just finished reading Sara Gruen's novel, Water for Elephants. She spent almost two days straight in bed, unable to put the book down. Hearing her talk about how she had to tear herself away from the novel to go to class or go to sleep at night made me stop and think of the last time I read a book that I couldn't put down. And by stop and think, I clearly mean pout with jealousy - after all, who doesn't love being swept away by a piece of writing?
I am currently plodding slowly (and somewhat painfully - as much as I enjoy the humor, there is an awful lot of wordy, over-indulgent history to wade through) through Corelli's Mandolin, as I did with The Power of One, Franny and Zooey, and Into the Wild. I suppose my stint with memoirs could have been torrid enough for them to be considered "page-turners", but I'm not sure that they really count as fiction. If we leave them out on a technicality, the last book I remember being truly captivated by was The Time Traveller's Wife. This left me wondering. I didn't think that Time Traveler was anything impressive - an odd but interesting storyline told through passable writing with ordinary characters. But I read it quickly, hungrily. And yet The Power of One, which I think anyone would agree is a better book by almost all standards, didn't entrance me in the same way. I can't help but ask...
What is it that makes a book a "page-turner?" What is it exactly that gives a piece of writing that ability to keep you from setting it down, picking up another book, or clearing the plotline from your head long after you've turned off the lamp to go to sleep?
When I look back at the books that have really held my interest recently, there isn't much of a pattern. The Time Traveler's Wife, Water for Elephants, and The Raw Shark Texts (a fantastically creative, modern and unprecedented novel suggested by a friend this summer - if you haven't heard of it, take the time to check it out here) are three in recent memory, and I'm not sure they could be more different. Also, although this might get me booed out of any book club, when I read the Twilight series, I couldn't put the books down. The same goes for Harry Potter. Are the characters the fuel that keeps the fire burning? The plot twists? Suspense? Curiosity? Excitement? Romance? Is it a matter of good writing, or of popular writing that caters to the reader?
The Free Dictionary.com defines "page-turner" as "A very interesting, exciting, or suspenseful book, usually a novel." Quite simply, this definition isn't enough for me.
What do you think makes a book a page-turner? Is there a specific formula? Is it a matter of talent, luck, or careful strategic planning?
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That's a great question, and I'm not sure I know how to answer. I remember in High School all of my friends were glued to the Dune series and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I know quite a few people who swear by Stephen Donaldson's "Thomas Covenant" series, but I could never get involved in any of those. I think it's in some part a personal matter, just based on how the characters and their situations relate to you... That being said, if the writing sucks, then it won't widely be thought of as a page-turner.
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