Thoughts on Rating

I read an interesting and thoughtful post on rating a book and I like to share my thoughts. Rating (i.e. 5 stars and so on) it self is a subjective matter. The experience in reviewing books on Amazon (which requires a rating of up to 5 stars) brought to awareness that such a rating system, if not just without flaw, will require constant adjustment of previously reviewed books when more books are being reviewed. Rating at best is relative only. How would I rate a highly readable, plot-driven book with very plain writing? In the same way, should a literary fiction that is slog for the most of it be given the same rating? I recall the point made on a post about pulp fiction and classic. If a key factor to a bestseller is readability, then the definition of a classic is re-readability. A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say. A classic is a work of literature that, regardless of the style and forms, affords new meaning and interpretation every time it is read again. Re-readability implies a book that has (a) first manifest for reader as an objective entity, (b) imbued a world view and awareness that transcend reader’s understanding, (c) never finishes what it has started to say, and (d) makes a lasting impression in reader.

Keeping the above  criteria in mind, I rate books as Read, Skim, or Toss, supplementing with Buy or Borrow, based on how much of an impression a book has made in me (Will I remember what it’s about a year later?). Consider three books from different genres. I rated them all Read. The Great Gatsby is an American classics because it captures the intimation that the American dream has been corrupted by the sole, empty pursuit of money. The foresight and divination of the book, which reflects very sharply and accurately the materialistic world that we live in now. Noble House by James Clavell is an epitome of pulp fiction (airport novel): electrically engaging, page-turning, and plot-driven. The writing is so much better than most half-baked bestsellers. Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden is purely literary fiction. It’s a person’s reflection of her friendships over the years in a stream-of-conscious style. Instead of a forward, linear plot, the novel is a montage of small moments, petty incidents, and emergence of bygone affection that years later become defining point of these friendships. My current read, The Sea by John Banville, is very much like Molly Fox’s Birthday except I don’t resonate with the protagonist nor his childhood memories. How would the rating take into the account of my preference of Madden’s book over Banville’s? Banville might very well be a Read but not a Buy.