I only happened upon The Collector by John Fowles when I browsing my library's ebook collection out of utter boredom. I recognised the title and knew of the author so I thought why not!? Yeah I've really got to stop doing that because, oh boy, this novel is more tedious than David Foster Wallace's entire bibliography. The Collector follows the narrative of a man, Frederick, who decided to kidnap (or collect) a young woman, Miranda. The novel is Frederick's first-person perspective of the planning, the event, and the aftermath. Fowles creates a really grotesque character in Frederick and the novel seems totally neutral to his exploits. That is until Fowles decides to be the postmodernist slut that he was. Half-way through The Collector, everything stops and starts again but from Miranda's point-of-view. 
 I know that sounds really innovative and in any other novel I would be just dying over this cunning technique but nothing happens in this book. In fact, to echo a famed review of Waiting for Godot, nothing happens twice. The realisation that I now had to go back to the beginning of the kidnapping and hear everything all over again was just too much. I just did not care. I usually love novels that mess with conventions but The Collector came across as trite and, ultimately, boring. Such a pity.