Of a successful author, adverbs and writing style

Graham Green apparently abhorred adverbs; I think they have their place if used sparingly. But I have just read a novel for the Amazon Vine programme that was so wildly over-written, peppered with superfluous adverbs and extraordinary expressions, that I gave up on it. The author is a very successful young writer, whose first novel was quite outstanding. Her second was less so ( my opinion) and this one is I think disastrous. How sad. Other reviewers seem to have felt the same. She has changed her style completely, and while I can understand her wanting to do this - after all, a change can be a good thing - I think this may be her downfall. Fortunately for her, her debut novel was so widely acclaimed that subsequent novels may well prosper on the back of its success. But it seems such a terrible shame.

To return to the adverbs, almost every verb or sentence of speech is qualified by an adverb, and ways in which people speak include huffily, wolfishly, gruffly, patiently ( it is a character called Patience who speaks patiently, which sounds even odder) and, most strange of all, pinkly. For me, good writing is unobtrusive. It conjures up an image or story without drawing attention to the words used. This kind of writing, however, is so distracting as to be almost unbearable. I had been really looking forward to reading this book, but it turned out to be a big disappointment. I think I shall give the author's next novel a miss.

To adverb or not to adverb?

I'm not a no-adverbs-at-any-price writer. I think, like exclamation marks, they have their place (although I believe Graham Greene would have disagreed). But I have just re-read a Dick Francis* (I'd run out of reading material), and he is quite amazing. Almost every piece of dialogue is qualified with an adverb, some of them quite astonishingly clumsy. In a random couple of pages there are the following; pleasantly, faintly, weakly, shamfacedly, suddenly, disbelievingly, thoughtfully, neutrally, passionately, swiiftly, advisedly. And that's just a couple of pages.

I notice these things much more now that I write more. Points of view, too. Some writers seem to get away with jumping from one POV to another, and it can be quite jarring. But would I have noticed before I had to examine my own writing so carefully? I'm not sure.

* I don't wish to be disparaging about DF; I read, and enjoyed, many of his books while feeding my 3rd baby. He's good holiday reading, and tells a pacy story.