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Author
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Topic: Turning over a new leaf (Read 1091 times)
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madox g.m.
Guest
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I loved this.
Fantastic fiction. So carefully constructed, all the way to the final word. So carefully worded, with the colloquial syntax so naturally imbedded in the good, flowing style. Everything a short story should be, and, what is more, for those who like me have the misfortune  of not being Americans, a beautiful illustration of our dreamed America, at the same time as deeply universal.
Loved it, I said.
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Olivia Buford
Guest
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I agree with the Maddox g.m. Has anyone read this short story? It has so much to do with the displacement of rural America because of greed and what we view as that all-important term, "progress." Housing starts and cars dictate our economic health. Look what we've lost. Small towns, family farms, a sense of identity. There is more community in New York city than there is in the old towns in ruarl America. Now they are a place to visit--get a bed and breakfast place and browse around. Small towns are just a place to visit and point at the ersatz oddities of the past. They are like visiting a zoo: "look at that!" This story is so American, lyrical and profound and just fine!
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maria
Full Member
Posts: 4
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Just as Hawthorne saw himself in contrast to those surrounding him, so too is Cotton Barbeau in contrast to the memory of himself. If we are constantly looking at our lives through the rearview mirror, which is the actual life--the reflection or the event itself? Very American story with themes that Melville and Hawthorne surely discussed during those late nights in Melville's barn. How refreshing that we are still thinking about those same ideas.
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