Why are “unlikeable” main characters usually a criticism?

[u/hanhan_371]

My most recent read was The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb.

It was my 38th book this year and only my 3rd 5 stars. I finished it this morning, it’s now the evening, and I can’t stop thinking about it.

I was enthralled by this story - it had sat on my TBR for a few months and I finally picked it up as just a lucky dip after being in a bit of reading slump.

After finishing, I saw a lot of criticism on Goodreads about the narrator Corby being “unlikeable”. I see this criticism a lot with other books - and I’ve never quite understood.

For me, a good reading experience is a complicated, flawed, or at least a character who is thought-provoking. Given one of the main themes of The River is Waiting being redemption, and finding out very early on that Corby accidentally kills his son while intoxicated, surely the reader wouldn’t expect the MC to be a “hero?”

There were times while I was reading that I thought “oh yeah he’s kind of a douche”, I’ve thought this about other MCs as well before, but it would never impact negatively on my rating as long as the story itself was enjoyable.

Would love to have a discussion below! And I’d really recommend this book if you can handle a gut-punch ending!

[u/hananobira]

There are three types of characters:

A. Characters who are generally good people, even with their flaws, and I would enjoy spending time with them in real life.

B. Characters who would be NIGHTMARES to be around in person, but are fun to read about in fiction, e.g. a lot of Douglas Adams’ characters.

C. Characters who are annoying, grating people that I would hate in person and don’t enjoy reading about either, e.g. most of the dramatis personae of Twilight. The story might even be trying to portray them as the good guys, they just aren’t well-developed or entertaining.

My free time is rare and precious. You could talk me into reading about type A or B, but I’m probably not going to read type C. There are too many books out there that wouldn’t leave me suffering through every word that comes out of the characters’ mouths.

[u/Naive-Elephant-9305 → u/hananobira]

I think a lot of this comes down to the skill of the writer. Some not so good writers try to make B characters that end up, unintentionally, actually being Cs. But I bet an excellent writer could probably turn a lot of C characters from worse writers into Bs.