I've decided to add in some comments on individual stories so you can both respond back to the stories maybe. It might be easier to break it all up.
So the story of the Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong is where I really get into the book. I LOVE this story. I think I like it so much because it's a little bit longer and everything is explained in one story instead of in chunks at random parts (except for the end really when the "facts" aren't known by Rat). I love how Mark takes the bet, his girlfriend comes, and her sweet self turns into a "Greeny." Mark goes crazy and she goes missing. It's an ironic tale and not a happy ending at all. I love though that it's a love story of sorts. Maybe that sounds cheesy because these are Tim's war stories, but as he says, war is about a lot of things. I feel so bad for Mark but at the same time I love that MaryAnne goes out and does her own thing! It's such a fun and sad story at the same time.
Another thing that I like is that MaryAnne becomes this ghost figure at the end of the story. Even though we grapple with the truth of the stories the whole time we're reading the book, and this story may seem outrageous, it does seem one of the most real because of the emotions and details put into the story telling.
Definitely my favorite part of this novel!!!
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I liked what this was a story about a woman. It's nice to get this dicotomy (spelling?) in a book about Vietnam era soldiers at war. That she truly found a part of herself that she wasn't allowed/in the position to discover as a straight-laced mid-western girl on the cusp of marrying into white housewife life. The image of the dried tongues on copper wire as a necklace, tongies curled upward in their final "syllable," I forgot the language he uses and don't have the book with me... I thought that sentance was amazing and really give her a wild mystique, where otherwise I might have just though she straight-up snapped and went nuts. The necklace was like an anchor for me, that made me really believe in her transformation.
ReplyDeleteI liked that sentence too. It shows such a 180 in her personality. But then at the same time, when she tells Mark that he's in the wrong place and he needs to leave, I "hear" this in her normal sweet voice. It's such a cool transition.
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