Harry Crews is not a "beach read"!

Those of you who have read Harry Crews probably already know this! Wow, do I love his writing, but I find it more conducive to read him at home in Mississippi...on my porch....listening to crickets...with silence to think about what he has to say. I almost titled this blog "You can't speed read Harry Crews",because that's what I've found also. Reading Crews is like having your foot on the accelerator...sometimes you can speed ahead and sometimes you need to take your foot off completely, come to a complete stop and think about a character or a situation he's described. Rich reading to me.
So, needless to say, I stopped reading him at the beach and picked Elizabeth Berg's "Until the Real Thing Comes Along". Not her best one, because I didn't like the ending. Very unsatisfying for this single mom to read. Basically, she's in love with a gay man. He "came out" while he was in a relationship with the main character. She is still in love with him and the whole book is about her trying to get over him and then they have child together and well you get the idea. I think if you are going to read while you are at the beach, there should be a happy ending. I mean, you are smack dab in the middle of a happy ending in your life, right? I mean, you ARE at the beach for a week! So, why spoil it by reading about unrequited love and angst. I am writing about this because I never understood a "beach read" until this vacation.
After the Berg book I read "Bed and Breakfast". Now that's a real beach read. Totally mindless, don't have to invest yourself in the fate of the characters too much but with just enough substance to keep you distracted.
Jo Ellen spoke so highly of Dorothy Sayers, that's on my library list next. Will start a P D James tonight and maybe another Greg Iles.