I felt like maybe it helped him to move on in some way. To see the house in real time and not in memory, to experience it as actually smaller than it seemed to him as a child, to feel that sense of remove — that has to affect how he handles the whole experience internally.
At the very end, when he's speaking of the "thicket of man's memory" and "my parent, friend, and brother, the lost boy, was gone forever and would not return," I felt like the narrator had finally untangled some terrible knot in his heart and found a little peace.
Agreed. I like kc's mentioning that "sense of remove" that always comes with revisiting childhood as an adult.
In some ways, I thought returning to the house was crucial to the way the book was structured. It's a gradual revealing process, where we learn important pieces of the plot along the way, so to speak - and even when we go back and hear old information, it's revealed in a new way, or from a different perspective. Very cool.
Yeah, I liked that about it, too, Shanxi. The way the story gradually revealed itself in pieces. I thought the final chapter was the strongest, maybe just because it was the most personal, the most resonant. The idea of this man trying to recapture a long-lost brother he barely remembered was so touching. I loved that line at the end, kc.
I felt like maybe it helped him to move on in some way. To see the house in real time and not in memory, to experience it as actually smaller than it seemed to him as a child, to feel that sense of remove — that has to affect how he handles the whole experience internally.
ReplyDeleteAt the very end, when he's speaking of the "thicket of man's memory" and "my parent, friend, and brother, the lost boy, was gone forever and would not return," I felt like the narrator had finally untangled some terrible knot in his heart and found a little peace.
Agreed. I like kc's mentioning that "sense of remove" that always comes with revisiting childhood as an adult.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways, I thought returning to the house was crucial to the way the book was structured. It's a gradual revealing process, where we learn important pieces of the plot along the way, so to speak - and even when we go back and hear old information, it's revealed in a new way, or from a different perspective. Very cool.
Yeah, I liked that about it, too, Shanxi. The way the story gradually revealed itself in pieces. I thought the final chapter was the strongest, maybe just because it was the most personal, the most resonant. The idea of this man trying to recapture a long-lost brother he barely remembered was so touching. I loved that line at the end, kc.
ReplyDelete