Richard Bausch’s story is unique in
the sense that he utilizes a very expressive voice throughout the duration of
the piece. Bausch is precise with his word choice, which makes reading this
story a fascinating experience. He also included insight on the fathoming of
time: “the thing that separates the young from the old is the knowledge of what
Time really is; not just how fast, but how illusive and arbitrary and mutable
it is.” Seeing that time is one of the abstract concepts that intrigue me, this
served as a hook into So Long Ago.
The success of this story, however,
is ultimately due to Bausch’s wonderful deliverance of a story. With each
allusion into his past, he includes a desirable amount of imagery, without
getting too carried away with irrelevant details. I enjoyed how Bausch began So Long Ago with his birthday bath time
story and then later mentioned himself as a father and touched on his
relationship with his son, causing for an interesting juxtaposition between the
relationship he had with his father as a child and the relationship has with
his son.
This nostalgic piece incorporates
numerous memories and stories from Bausch’s childhood, serving as a looking
glass into the environment in which Bausch was raised. Each allusion into his
childhood, from bath time on his seventh birthday to the climax after Minnie’s
funeral, is painted vividly and strategically to relate to Bausch and his
memories. I found it interesting, too, the broad spectrum of memories Bausch
chose to include. In fact, it wasn’t until nearing the end of So Long Ago that I could see the
relevance of each story. I appreciate this, however, in the sense that So Long Ago is far from predictable and
therefore intriguing to read.
Question: What elements does Bausch incorporate to make each
of his stories engaging?
No comments:
Post a Comment