Katie spouts about A&P

Hi Guys. Finally found you!

Anyway. A&P by John Updike.... For what it's worth, I thought the story was somewhat 'eye candy' (I'm not a big fan of Updike) but took from it some interesting thoughts. The biggest thing, and I know a lot of people, including you, Prof. disagreed with me, is how insightful and almost wise(?) Sammy is in the story. I really believe that Updike meant for him to be that way on purpose (probably to spice up a kind of boring plot). I think the dichotomy between a volatile teenager and the same kid being abnormally observant/smart is kind of interesting. Also, (again mostly everyone disagreed) I found the attention to detail -minute detail, at that- to be another reason to read the whole story without falling asleep before the end. I mean, the nubble on the girl's bathing suit and how Queenie placed every foot step so purposefully, those details are the action, really. The best part was when Queen pulled the money out of her cleavage... I could almost see the look on Sammy's face at that one. Yes, I suppose there are deeper ideas to be taken from this story about responsibility and character flaws, but I just can't bring myself to enjoy it enough to analyze it much more. Sorry, guys.

Thoughts on The Things They Carried to follow shortly.