Why do some characters get on our nerves?

Have you ever read a book whose characters irritated you so much you threw the whole thing across the room?

I have, and recently I've read a couple of books (the first part, anyway) in which none of the main characters resemble anyone I've ever known. Characters so hateful or so disfunctional they don't resemble anyone I know. Folks I wouldn't allow in my house!

So, what's important when you're inventing a new character for a book? I think that you, the author, need to love your characters. You don't have to like them and you probably won't like everything about them. But just as you love a less-than-perfect child or a cranky wife or husband, if your characters are real to you and are the sort of people you won't mind spending some time with, they need to be lovable and you need to try to understand why they are like they are.

Why did "Mommy Dearest" get so roundly panned, in spite of the fact that Joan Crawford was played by the very capable Faye Dunaway?

"NO WIRE HANGERS! EVER!!"

Why was it considered so bad it became a cult classic? IMHO, it was because Joan Crawford was portrayed, by the writer(s), without love or understanding.

I think it's okay to have a total unmitigated villian as long as (s)he is only there as a force to be reckoned with (like a tornado; like Crabby Appleton--rotten to the core). In a mystery, I think it's fine to have a really horrible character as long as they get bumped off early in the book. As readers, we now need to try and understand what make the various (all lovable) suspects tick, but we need not waste time worrying about why the deceased was so bad.

Remember that line from "On Golden Pond"?
"Sometimes you have to look very hard at a person to see that he's doing the best he can." (I probably didn't get that exactly right, word-for-word.)

I think that about says it all.

Maria Hudgins
Death of an Obnoxious Tourist (who, true to the above principle, gets bumped off early on)
www.mariahudgins.com