I’ve been wondering if some of what seems to be missing in this book could be provided by the geography. I particularly liked the scenes down in Arizona. Some of this might be that I know and enjoy that country. But I also found the image of her uncle prospecting to be distinctive. And might Alice be most at peace when swimming at night?
The desert is contrasted several times with the snows of the mid-West. And later we get an unsuccessful vacation to a tropical island. So I was wondering, might we line up the people somehow with the places and make a map of the geography of Alice’s relations?
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Interesting idea. Clearly her geographic choices are deliberate, but I'm not sure what to make of them or their order, beyond the stereotypes we associate with various regions of the country. All of the places she mentions have a certain seasonal romance.
ReplyDeleteOh gosh, I had forgotten about that disastrous vacation! (I read the book quite a while ago). But I think that may have been the moment I developed a real antipathy toward the narrator and her disgusting boyfriend, so entrenched in their gloom and hostility, confined to the hotel room screaming at each other.
Yeah, that vacation was a low point for me, too. And I agree that the Arizona scenes stood out, especially that image of her swimming alone after dark.
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