You know, when I started reading “The Ripliad”, I thought there was too much exposition, too much internal monologue and things like that. It reminded me of my pedagogics studies. You read a book and it drones on by repetition of the same idea page after page until you finally get it and think “I could summarize this in one sentence”. For example:
“A teacher’s own experiences are an underrated part of the basis for good teaching.”
or
“Tom Ripley does not quite understand why he did that, so he will do something even weirder.”
That’s the thing, though isn’t it? At the end of the section or chapter, you can summarize it in one sentence. Pedagogics books work in this way. It’s what a good writer does to you, too.
Still, these are not normally the kind of books that hold my attention, yet they do. What about you?