Author: Nicole Krauss
Pages Read: 35 – 64
The first thing I noticed while reading
this chapter is its layout. Rather than being in paragraph or story form like
most, the chapter was in point form. The points ranged from 1 – 34 and each had
a title as well as a few paragraphs either telling a story or explaining the
title itself. Once in a while, there’d be no explanation, but an entire story
simply found within the title. I found this to be extremely successful since a
new family was introduced in this chapter. I felt like I learned much more
about these characters than one would expect to in a single chapter. I owe that
to the author’s stylistic choice, which allowed her to jump from topic to topic
quickly; covering many topics in a short section of the book. It was also
rather clever, in my opinion, because it made the chapter so much more eye
catching and interesting which is a crucial thing to do in the first few
chapters. Since the beginning of a novel is usually trying to build some sort
of basis for the plot, there’s potential for it to be a little dull and
uninteresting. This chapter seemed to do just about the opposite by capturing
the reader and creating excitement for what’s to come.
While reading, I found myself trying very
hard to connect the newly introduced family to Leo Gursky, the protagonist of
the previous chapter. There are currently two separate stories being told in
the same novel, and due to the fact that I’ve previously read the little summary
on the back of the book, I know that the two stories won’t be separate for much
longer. After some examination, I noticed that there is an evident connection
and significance when it comes to literature in both stories. In the first, Leo
Gursky is a writer himself, while in the second, Elma’s mother is obsessed with
books – translating them into different languages and basically putting all of
her life and attention into the novels she is working with. I am a little ashamed to say that the use of post it notes was not too successful during this reading period. I only used one or two, focusing on the reading instead. My stubborn ways must be destroyed!
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