83-140

Post A

Vocabulary

AIB- (86) American Institute of Banking

sieve- (88) meshed utensil



Figurative Language

'-I'm going to the shops, Leanne. Can I get you anything?

The face lit up. She sat up on the couch. She smiled- grinned; the little girl wo'd danced around the kitchen, trying to distract her father, trying to charm him from her mother's broken body.

-bottle of something would be nice, she said' (85)


This is a metaphor, comparing the Leanne who thinks her mother will understand her situation, seeing as they are the same- seeing as she distracted her father from beating her too long. The little Leanne and the one who is broken and looking for escape.



'She misses her second pillow. She feels too flat, too close to the mattress.' (97)

Metaphor- Second pillow to me means her mask. She lost her drink, and lost the mask that came with it. She lives in reality now, which can be less fluffy than we think at times.



'The bottle was on the floor beside Leanne's bad leg, with the coke and a cup. Half empty. Half full.' (102)

While I'm not exactly sure what this means, I'm pretty sure that it's a metaphor for how Paula is feeling at seeing her efforts wasted.


Theme: I would wager a guess that the emerging theme is Leanne vs. Paula. I think that the author is delving into that vein a little bit, and I enjoy exploring it. Leanne is the old Paula- she gets to see exactly what she was like, and see if she can change who 'she' is to become.


Quote:

'Leanne's hands were gone and Paula fell back. She sat on the floor. She was gasping. The bottle was beside her.


Post B

Dear Mr. Doyle,

I am absolutely and thoroughly confused by your book. It is exceptionally well written, it is powerful in all the right places, and it genuinly makes me think... but I can't make heads or tails of it. I suppose halfway isn't far enough to decide whether I like your novel or not, also taking into consideration that this isn't the type of story I usually read, but I'm a bit shaky on the theme. Usualy when I pick up a book it's because the theme caught my eye. But I suppose this is interesting- the theme hidden between the lines. The thing that I want most for this novel is for it to all tie together in the end. I am already starting to see some ties, but there's no real connection between this and that and everything around their heads. I'm glad to see characters emerging, especially Leanne. I have to say, she is my least favorite character, but she intruigues me the most. How odd. And then there's Paula... who is eccentric and down to earth. She doesn't much tickle my fancy either, as much as it pains me to admit it to you. What I do enjoy about the story is how it moves. There's backwards forwards land, and then there's present past tense land, and in between there's thought and reality land. Quite the little map for me to follow- I've gotten lost on more than one occasion too and had to go back a few miles for directions... or a dictionary. No matter though, I generally like things that confuse me, and this is one of them. So yes, favorites next, shall we? Jack. I don't know why, but Jack is my favorite character so far. Probably because I feel like he is the most like me. I like Paula the cleaning lady- a little bit of a metaphor for her life as an alcoholic trying to clean up where she's spilled and where others have. My favorite 'theme' is the Paula-Leanne wars. I love the mother daugther communication and craziness.

I hope you write more novels, I've gotten quite a few reccomendations to become well read in your stories.

Best of luck,

-Dani B.