I really enjoyed the first 32 pages of this book. Lott goes into a great amount of detail just like Mary Karr did, but he does it in a way that is easier to understand. It may the fact that he separates certain paragraphs. For some reason that really helps me stay on track with what he is talking about because it's usually when he is ending something, and about to being something else. Not only does he do this throughout the paragraphs, but he also has the book split up into different sections. Each one is about a different man in his family, and although it's hard to keep them straight at times, I think it adds a lot to the book. It's almost more of a collection of short stories, than one whole story, but I think that they all coorespond with each other and will all tie together before the book is over.
The home life he had growing up seems to be quite stable, but I think the amount of moving he had to do has affected him. Also, he talks a lot about the relationship he has with his brothers, which shows that he cares a lot about that, and about them. He hasn't said much about the sister though, sometimes I found myself forgetting there was a sister, and this makes me wonder how their relationship was. He also made it seem as though it was hard to have a relationship with his father, so I think there may be a lot more to come with that too.
I also think that Lott is going to do a lot of comparing of his life growing up, with the lives of his two boys. "What I believe is this: That pinch was entry into our childhood; my arm around him, our smiling, is the proof of us two surfacing, alive but not unscathed. And here are my own two boys, already embarked" (32). As I said, I think the relationship he has with his brothers is very important to Lott, therefore it seems as though he is hoping his boys have the same thing. Or, it wasn't until they were older that things became plesant between him and his brothers, so he is hoping his boys get along the way they couldn't. I'm not exactly sure which it will be, but so far I really like the tone of the book and I think it is very easy to understand what is going on and to stay engaged in it.
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Good job, Michelle.
ReplyDeleteI'd like you to follow the idea about Lott's comparisons throughout. How is he using this to say something about both his experiences and his own children?
Resist summary. Focus on the qualities of the writing, on actual text.
Keep working!
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteA Few things. What do you mean by tone?
Check for some errors: "plesent." And a missing word early on.
You'll have to say more about the spacing. Paragraphs always end something and the new ones begin something else. There is something to be said about the spacing, but that's not quite it.
Pretty good thoughts, throughout. I'd love another example of the way Lott compares his children with his own experiences.
Grade: 8/10