Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Babylon

1. Babylon by Eula Biss
2. This creative non-fiction piece focused on a woman’s experiences in California. The author jumps from her experiences to stories of Babylon, which share similarities such as: “the hanging gardens were built for a homesick wife. Amytis of the Medes found the flat, dry land of Babylon depressing, and so her gardens were planted on terraces to look like hillsides”, Palm trees were all I could see there for a long time. The palm trees were how I knew I was a long way from home. Both stories exhibit feelings of missing home.
3. The way the story is set up is interesting. The piece jumps back and forth between historic stories of Babylon and the author’s own experiences. It intrigued me that the author did have research and history in the parts about Babylon…and I didn’t get bored reading it! The author wrote just the right amount of history in her piece to keep it intriguing and not boring.
4. Writing upon her own experiences adds authenticity to her piece. Writers bullshit a lot but her piece has facts when it talks about Babylon or why people left LA and also shares personal experiences that would seem hard to make up unless she experienced them.
5. 5 out of 15

Thursday, March 1, 2012

The Farther You Go

1. The Farther You Go By Russo

2. Some of the pages are missing from this story but what I understand from it is a couple’s daughter was beaten by her husband and is leaving him. The mother, father, and daughter are all dealing with the ordeal differently: the mother thinks he wouldn’t hit her and shouldn’t leave, the father is more upset that he hit her but doesn’t want to interfere with the marriage, and the daughter just wants to leave.

3. The author’s voice is extremely present in this story. It’s just out there, jumping off the page like Huck Finn’s but the way the characters speak to each other and how they describe things gives a matter-of-factly yet tough guy voice and at some parts the main character reminds me of a protective, yet tough Clint Eastwood, like something out of “Gran Torino”.

4. The story started out hot which is why I chose to read it. It starts with his penis hurting and i believe he has cancer around his pubic area (pages were missing) then it lead to his daughter leaving her husband then TWIST comes around to his affair with a woman some fifteen years ago. And it all tied together, no loose ends. It was a great story to read.

5.4 of 15