Peter T, I have to disagree with your assessment of those novels. What kind of comparison are you doing and what are you asking them to "stand up" to? The fact that you weren't able to stick with them does not mean that the novels are mediocre. It simply means that the novels weren't a good fit and thus didn't interest you. There are many authors who expect their readers to do some work as they read, and who expect their readers to bring a level of understanding or the willingness to learn, as when students read these stories. Steinbeck, Hemingway, Faulkner, and many other Modernist authors (and poets) brought a sophisticated set of stories and archetypes from the classics and mythology and transformed elements of them into modern-day stories. Part of the charm and challenge of reading these novels is to see how they manage to do it.

I tried reading War and Peace, and found it too cumbersome to hold my interest, but that doesn't mean that I think it isn't a great novel. It means it doesn't suit my tastes and to attempt to read it wasn't a good match between reader and author.

SRS