Cloudsplitter, by Russell Banks
Dear Owen Brown,
you took an entire chapter/first letter to explain to the researcher all about... well... yourself, and how sorry for yourself you are, and how people should recognize more about your father the way you feel about him, and how sorry about your father you are. It was belabored but it makes sense in the first person context of this confessionist style of writing. You then promised to elaborate as to WHY you feel this way, and others should feel this way, about your father, John Brown. You said you'd show us important information about him.
So, uh... why, after 250 pages, are you still telling the researcher about how glum your life is, with only a few occasional breaks to describe something that actually happened?
If this memoir were real, you would be critically whipped up and down for navel-gazing. The fact that you're actually a semi-fictional character just makes your whinging unacceptable. Get to the point. Show us what you say we need to know. I have 500 pages left of your letter/confession/memoir/alt history thing. kthxbai.
--PolarisDiB
you took an entire chapter/first letter to explain to the researcher all about... well... yourself, and how sorry for yourself you are, and how people should recognize more about your father the way you feel about him, and how sorry about your father you are. It was belabored but it makes sense in the first person context of this confessionist style of writing. You then promised to elaborate as to WHY you feel this way, and others should feel this way, about your father, John Brown. You said you'd show us important information about him.
So, uh... why, after 250 pages, are you still telling the researcher about how glum your life is, with only a few occasional breaks to describe something that actually happened?
If this memoir were real, you would be critically whipped up and down for navel-gazing. The fact that you're actually a semi-fictional character just makes your whinging unacceptable. Get to the point. Show us what you say we need to know. I have 500 pages left of your letter/confession/memoir/alt history thing. kthxbai.
--PolarisDiB