In the brief description of the author of this piece that preceeds the actual text, it mentioned that he recieved a BFA and an MFA for English at various institutes and that set me up for a good read. I assumed that it would at least be more intriguing than the reading assignment before this. It was more intriguing. But only slightly.
From the way he starts out in the beginnig, and probably just the title, you can assume this will be a recollection of experiences in a place and for the most part thats what it was. His life there growing up, little unique details about the place. Some of those detials even brought emotions and reactions out of me. Things like the bloated dogs with bags of bricks tied to them. JEEZE. But regardless of these things, a lot of the time I found myself asking "why is he writing this?", "what, more specifically, is this about?", "why am I reading this?" even. I think that it was the tone of the piece that made me feel this way.
His voice and fluency reminded me of a teacher who was just telling a story to kill time, on the fly, at the end of class. There was nothing incredibly striking about his word choice and there was no dramatic arc of any sort to the tone in his voice. And I kept thinking about his Master's degree in english and wondering why I wasn't more inthralled or even impressed by his writing.
I will say though that I didn't entirely dislike the piece. I did actually enjoy it and it shows what those little details can bring to a piece. Especially when I, having lived no where in the Northwest, can appreciate them but not relate to them.
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Instead of just critiquing what you've read, try allowing the reading to cause you to reflect on your own experience. What's unique about the place where you grew up? What are some of the things that define that place? As a kid, did you hear rumors about neighbors or areas of town? How has that place changed over time?
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