Comments on: Summer Reading: Dave Eggers’s What Is the What http://zemblangrammar.com/2008/07/16/summer-reading-dave-eggerss-what-is-the-what/ Alfina the Vague: hermeneutic detective. Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:35:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Timothy http://zemblangrammar.com/2008/07/16/summer-reading-dave-eggerss-what-is-the-what/comment-page-1/#comment-2423 Timothy Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:46:33 +0000 http://zemblangrammar.com/?p=344#comment-2423 I think there's something to that. I'm finally getting to the point where I can differentiate between things I don't happen to like and things that aren't good. I think <em>Oldest Living Confederate Widow</em> falls more into the first category. I really don't like purposeful misspellings that are supposed to give me a sense of the narrator's voice, and Gurganus does a lot of that. "Onct"? WTF? I think there’s something to that. I’m finally getting to the point where I can differentiate between things I don’t happen to like and things that aren’t good. I think Oldest Living Confederate Widow falls more into the first category. I really don’t like purposeful misspellings that are supposed to give me a sense of the narrator’s voice, and Gurganus does a lot of that. “Onct”? WTF?

]]> By: Alfina the Vague http://zemblangrammar.com/2008/07/16/summer-reading-dave-eggerss-what-is-the-what/comment-page-1/#comment-2414 Alfina the Vague Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:59:16 +0000 http://zemblangrammar.com/?p=344#comment-2414 Sometimes I think reading a book you dislike makes you more thoughtful, since you are constantly going over the reasons why it isn't working for you. That happened to me on this one, but then I wound up liking it after all. Sometimes I think reading a book you dislike makes you more thoughtful, since you are constantly going over the reasons why it isn’t working for you. That happened to me on this one, but then I wound up liking it after all.

]]> By: Timothy http://zemblangrammar.com/2008/07/16/summer-reading-dave-eggerss-what-is-the-what/comment-page-1/#comment-2403 Timothy Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:25:47 +0000 http://zemblangrammar.com/?p=344#comment-2403 I am having that same kind of problem with <em>Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All</em>. I desperately want to like the book, I do, but something about the narrator's voice and the somewhat sympathetic presentation given to the recently post-slavery south really puts me off. Gurganus also spends a lot of time with Lucy talking about her hoo-ha. I don't know if his goal is exposing the then common practice of marital rape and the way in which young women were not really taught anything about screwin' or what, but every five pages it's "Oh, and that Mr. Marsden made me do him after telling that story!" I have, frankly, pretty much had enough of it. I am increasingly convinced that the old south is basically a template for everything that can be wrong with the universe, and this book is doing nothing to really dissuade me from that notion. I am having that same kind of problem with Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. I desperately want to like the book, I do, but something about the narrator’s voice and the somewhat sympathetic presentation given to the recently post-slavery south really puts me off.

Gurganus also spends a lot of time with Lucy talking about her hoo-ha. I don’t know if his goal is exposing the then common practice of marital rape and the way in which young women were not really taught anything about screwin’ or what, but every five pages it’s “Oh, and that Mr. Marsden made me do him after telling that story!” I have, frankly, pretty much had enough of it.

I am increasingly convinced that the old south is basically a template for everything that can be wrong with the universe, and this book is doing nothing to really dissuade me from that notion.

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