Actually, I rather liked New Grub Street when I read it many years ago, grim as it was. I'm not in a hurry to re-read it, though.

Repellent enough?
 

"Thar she blows!"
If these words fill you with the irresistible urge to sail off in pursuit of the great leviathan, this is the book for you! With a genius for meticulous detail, the author re-creates, in little more than 600 pages, the squalor, the terror, the tedium, of an actual whaling voyage. Enjoy the thrill of piercing the flesh, of witnessing the death throes, of watching the sea turn red with the blood of the fierce behemoth! Wade knee-deep in blood and gore, gag on the stench of burning flesh, as you stir the boiling blubber in the great trypots! In this era of "whale watches," of ecological awareness, of international bans on whaling, it's hardly possible to experience first-hand -- short of signing onto a Japanese whaling fleet -- the lost art of hunting down these mighty monsters of the deep. This book is the next best thing.

The Old Man and the Sea
 

Imagine you are at a cocktail party when you are cornered by a white-bearded geriatric fisherman who offers to regale you with yet another story about "the one that got away." If the old man happens to be named Santiago, refill your glass, have a seat, and call the babysitter to warn her that you're going to be late. Santiago will share every last thought that passed through his head during the tedious hours before the mighty marlin first nibbled his bait, as well as every syllable of the interminable, one-sided conversation by which he bonded with the fish and came to call it brother in the hours to follow. What? You don't get out much to cocktail parties these days? Don't worry. Tbe entire story, in painstaking detail, is contained between the covers of the remarkable book you now hold in your fortunate hands.