The first part was such a vivid portrait of the town square of Grover's childhood. What do you think this part told us about Grover?
What did you make of his sort of mantra, "this is Time," "this is the Square," "this is Grover"?
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I need to reread it for the finer details, but the tone of it sort of reminded me of something Walt Whitman would write -- a celebration of small-town life and of America. Grover was a pint-sized patriot.
ReplyDeleteI think there was probably more foreshadowing in that section ("this is time"/"this is Grover") that would bear further scrutiny. Like I do recall his vague feeling of dread/disquiet from the parlor and playing under that piano, and his comparison of that to a coffin, when we learn later that he died in that room.
Oops. I think I addressed this somewhat in the previous question.
ReplyDeleteThe repetition also had a feeling of trying to nail something down, especially something elusive like the past, or someone you never really knew but heard about all your life, as Wolfe did his older brother. There's a reference in the introduction to this novella being Wolfe's "search" for his brother, and the "this is time"/"this is Grover" mantra supports that.
There's also that feeling you have when you're a kid of being you and no one else. I am me. This is my hand, etc., I can move my fingers — a sort of amazement. I remember feeling like I might easily have been a lot of things — my dog, a horse, a flower, but I was, mysteriously, ME, in my body, with my thoughts.
And there's also that cool juxtaposition between the "this is Grover" mantra and the later part where Grover is trying to teach his little brother, over and over (and unsuccessfully), how to say his name. He never said it correctly before he died.
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