Since I have finished up the last book that I was reading I have decided to try something thing new and read a short story. The short story that I decided to do my blog on this time is victory lap by George Sanders. This was one of the three readings assigned to me by my English teacher for our short story writing unit and I must say that this one was my favorites. I believe that this story was my favorite because the ending was unexpected and abrupt to the extent that there was no way I could have guessed how the story would have turned out from reading the first couple of pages or even the first half of the story.
When I first began reading victory lap I thought that it was pretty boring and that there was way to much exposition. There also semmed to be connection between the first to characters at first other than the fact that they knew each other.I thought that it would be one of those stories where the author just tells us about to separate characters lives without haveing an important connection between the two, Turning to story into a compare and contrast ordeal.To be honest if I weren't reading it for class I probably would have ended up putting it down and not finishing it, but I am glad that I did.
The story is told in the third person and switches focuses between three characters which are all very different from one another. There was very good charaterzation by the author through the descriptions of how the characters were performing actions on this particular day. The author allowed us to step into a day in the lives of the characters and I also like how even though it was told in third person we were still allowed to know the inner thought of the different characters.
Also I appreciated how Sanders made the dialogue of the characters match with the character descriptions that she gave for them. It made the characters very believable which allows the reader to get a much deeper connection to the story. Also you could tell that this choice really worked for the author because you could follow the character switches within the story without confusion as to what character is talking or being talked about. This is definitely an author that I would like to read more stories from.
I liked your post, particularly because it documented your thinking as you read rather than merely summarizing the text. I read the story myself and also enjoyed it quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteMy only suggestion would be that you employ specific examples in the text to highlight the points that you make. It would be helpful to include a sample of the "dialogue matching character description" to specifically demonstrate Saunder's strategies (it is Saunders, not Sanders, by the way).
Overall, however, I thoroughly enjoyed it; you explained your thinking very well