One of my greatest pet peeves has to be when a writer believes that his or her audience lacks intelligence. I understand that there is a certain stereotype about Americans—that for all the power and money we have, we're simply not as smart as we think. But I think that many writers don't give their audience enough credit, believing that their readers won’t be able to understand certain metaphors or deeper meanings. I love writers like Fitzgerald and Golding that force you to dig into the book to pull out the message.
Jennings' book leaves me no ground to dig. He presents this metaphor comparing country music to his own life right out in the open, in the prologue, and leaves you wondering, what else is there for me to look for? And he drills in this "core message" throughout the entire novel, as if we as an audience were unable to make the connection. Frankly, this book did not "grab" me—it made me a passive reader rather than an active one.
On a separate note, I believe Jennings also alienates his audience. I felt that I couldn't see myself in his story because I’m not Southern. As Joe said, I don't know anything about country music, and thus, instead of feeling at "home" in Jennings' story, I felt like an outsider. While Jennings book did leave me interested in learning more about country music, it left me with little else.
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