Red 2.0
I'm glad I am posting this after class, because I ended up going to dinner with Maggie this evening, and something she said totally related to the book: it reminded her a lot of the school play, and how it seemed like the girls in both the book and play were whining about life. This seemed very interesting to me- though I thought the same thing, I never related it to the play.
Now, there were instances in which this "whining" was appropriate, but for the most part, it was just a bunch of girls whining about what they hated in their life. As much as I like reading, I don't like to read non-fiction. I did appreciate the book, but I just needed a plot and one specific character to follow. This book reminded me a lot of a case study, which is exactly what our school play was- Reviving Ophelia.
I totally wouldn't have chosen that play, first of all, because the boy character was a jerk, and second because I don't think the audience likes to hear about a bunch of depressing stories. I totally understand why the book ties into our class, and I did like some of the stories, but for the most part, I just had a hard time paying attention. Again, I'm willing to bet it's because the book is non-fiction.
I like books like Part-Time Indian. =D
I totally understand where you are coming from with this, and I agree with your insights on the novel. Your post actually inspired the idea I wrote my blog on. I thought about what you said about how all of the girls whined in each of their stories and about how it was hard to read nonfiction. I think some of that is because each of these stories was so short that as soon as you started to actually care or become interested in what a girl was saying the story was over, and you were on to the next complaint. The idea that each story was hard to care about made me think of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books, because I remember really enjoying those. I think the main difference is the length and depth of the stories in those books compared to RED. These girls were not memorable in the slightest, while some of those stories I will remember for a long time.
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