My mother tells Tina that she doesn't like books where the protagonist is established as Sad on page one. Okay, she's sad! We get it, we know what sad is, and then the whole book is basically a description of the million and one ways in which our protagonist is sad. Gimme a break! Get on with it!
In Miriam Toews' book All My Puny Sorrows, the narrator's mother expresses her dislike for stories where the main character is immediately shown as sad. She feels that such an approach is repetitive and unoriginal, as it simply focuses on the character's sadness without adding much depth or development.
She criticizes the common literary trope of establishing a protagonist's sadness early on and then dwelling on it throughout the story. The mother prefers stories that develop characters beyond their initial emotions and avoid overly emphasized melancholy, urging writers to move beyond predictable portrayals of despair.
