To Find Out What Happens

For the past few weeks, during my lunch break at work, I've been reading John Irving's The World According To Garp and hating it.
Really hating it.
Everytime you start to build up even a small amount of respect or admiration for a character, he or she turns around and sleeps with somebody they shouldn't or does something else completely stupid.

I keep asking myself: "Why don't you just give up? Just put the damned thing away and accept that the same guy who kept you riveted with A Prayer for Owen Meany and The Cider House Rules may have actually written a book that simply sucks."

Then I keep answering myself: "Obviously somebody didn't think it sucked because they made it into a movie in the 80's - and a comedy at that!"

So I keep sticking it out in hopes that it will get better at some point; that some character is going to do something or say something so unforgettable that my moments between the bites of delectable lunches prepared by my sweetie haven't been completely wasted.

And then I got to page 325. At this point in the book, a publisher is having a conversation with his cleaning lady who just spent the prior weekend poring over an incredibly sucky manuscript:

If you hated it, why'd you read it, Jillsy?" John Wolf asked her.
"Same reason I read anythin' for," Jillsy said, "To find out what happens."
John Wolf stared at her.
Most books you know nothin's gonna happen"..."this book's so sick you know somethin's gonna hppen, but you can't imagine what. You got to be sick yourself to imagine what happens in this book," Jillsy said.

And there you have it - straight from the author's character's mouth. Now I have to finish the damned thing. If only to find out what happens.