"Long Man"

So far, “Long Man” has not been very interesting to me. It seems to drag on and I’m having a hard time trying to figure out the theme of the story. I understand that the town floods really easily and the people are in danger, but I don’t understand much after that. Who is the lady in the first chapter? Is she related to Annie Clyde Dodson? It is mentioned that a dam is being built. Isn’t that supposed to help with flooding? Yes, relocation is probably what is best for the citizens of this town; however, I don’t think it is one hundred percent necessary. I also don’t understand the importance of Amos. It just seems like there are random parts of this story that just don’t add up. Also, these chapters drag on and on and I’m not even sure if it is relevant to the plot. Greene has a lot of details and descriptions, but too many if you ask me. There is a fine line between describing your scenes and characters and going into too much detail. Trust me, overdoing details can be done. When Greene goes on one of these detail rants, it just makes the story boring and hard to follow. I have lost interest quickly and more than once. I’m not sure what to think about the story because it can’t keep my attention. Hopefully it picks up and will grab my attention. I also don’t understand the organization of the characters in this story. It just doesn’t flow, in my opinion. Maybe it’s just me. Who is Silver Ledford? Is that the lady from the first chapter? See? I’m just so confused at who everyone is and what their purpose is. Annie Clyde and James are still married aren’t they? I wasn’t so sure on that when I read it because he doesn’t live with them. He left to go work, or so I think, and then he comes back to get them. Why would a man leave his family like that? It doesn’t matter if she wants to stay, either you stay with them or you drag them with you. He just doesn’t seem like a real family man to me. It could be the time period at which it was written though. With that being said, when was it written? Because I’m clueless on that as well. I’m one of those people that need background information to bring me up to speed on what is happening and why it is happening. That’s probably not normal, but it helps me figure out where we are at in the story and why we are there. I also don’t understand why the remaining people are being evicted from their homes. If they own the home then the government has no right to evict them. I think it’s a law. The energy company is coming around telling people they have to move or they’re going to evict them. That’s just outrageous to me. It doesn’t add up to me, but maybe that’s because I’ve had such a hard time understanding and following the plot and story line. I’m really hoping that the next section picks up and makes more sense. Maybe it will put the pieces together. I must say, the second part of “Long Man” read easier than the first part. I was intrigued about how the pacing sped up in the second part, but the same amount of detail and description was used. I was lying in bed last night reading, as I often do, and it seemed like in no time I had reached the end of the section. I was wanting to read farther ahead, but I knew I would be up all night if I did that. The way that Greene was able to speed up the pacing but not change a thing about her descriptions was just mind blowing. Maybe she didn’t change the pacing. Perhaps there was just more action happening in this section. I have written a story that is similar to this novel. In my story, there is quite a bit of detail and not much dialog at the beginning. I was told by a classmate that story, such as the one I had written, may have a hard time capturing the attention of the reader. I think that is what happened at the beginning of the novel. Greene focused so much on the details and developing the story that she somehow lost the reader in the midst. I have always said that I like the story, but I dislike the pacing. The sections are broken down by days. This whole novel takes place over the course of just a few days, but each day seems to take forever to read. I disliked that aspect of this novel. On page 202, there is a quote that I think gives off a good sense of what the first section consists of: “They stood across from each other in the lamplight, James blinking at her with bloodshot eyes. Then she pushed past him, the whiskey fumes enough to sting her nose, and ran down the stairs.” This type of description is what this whole novel is like, with a little dialog here and there. It is skillful that Greene can do this type of detail throughout the entire novel; however, she doesn’t effectively capture the attention of the reader. I don’t think that worked out in her favor. That is something that I have taken away from this novel so far. Details and descriptions are fantastic, but only if you can engage the reader and make them want more. Greene never made me want more except for at the end of the second section when Annie Clyde gets blood poisoning. She could have put more action in the first section instead of making page eighty-five or so be the first page where something actually happens. I’m definitely taking away that aspect. I want my reader to want to continue reading. I don’t want them to be like me and put this book down every couple of pages because I get so bored I can barely stay awake. That’s how I felt about the first section. It was boring to me. It was too much backstory. I think we would have been okay without any of the information, but for some reason Greene thought it was important to include. Maybe we will understand why in the last couple of sections. Hopefully it will be more action driven than the first half. I’m that reader that says things such as “No!” or “Oh my gosh!” when I’m reading a book. The last part of “Long Man” had me saying “NO!!!!!” when I read it. It started off in the dog’s point of view, which I thought was very interesting. You rarely see an animal’s point of view in a novel. Then, it switched to Gracie’s. That’s where I lost it. All I could think about was how that could not be happening to her. I wished someone would find her. Actually, Phillip had to tell me whether or not they found her before I could finish reading. James found her and then I was happy again. I wonder why Greene decided to start in the dog’s point of view. It was very interesting and it was effect, but why was it saved until the very last part? The dog could have easily been shown earlier in the story. I was actually sad when Amos blew himself up. It made me angry that those people were shooting at him. He wasn’t a dangerous man. He wasn’t taking anyone down with the dam except for himself. People had such a bad idea about who they thought Amos was. He was just the misunderstood one out of the bunch. He was really easy to sympathize with, which so are a lot of the character’s I write. Silver and Ellard. They either need to be together or be apart. I don’t quite understand Silver. She doesn’t really want anything to do with her niece’s family, but then again she does. She doesn’t quite care that her niece has blood poisoning or that her great niece could be dead. She even told Annie Clyde that she would never look at her the same again. “She’d told her niece that she didn’t think she could look her in the face again. She had believed her own words when she said them. She hadn’t even gone to the hospital where she knew Gracie was recovering” (168). I wonder if I’ve ever written a character like Silver. I wasn’t a big fan of her. It seemed as if she hated people and civilization. I was wondering if Annie Clyde and Gracie would make it to the hospital in time to save them both. I found it heartwarming to see Washburn hang around the hospital. It made his character rounder. We then got to see a piece of his life. Lastly, Annie Clyde is having another baby! I think there is nothing more powerful than the bond between a mother and child. We see that bond throughout the whole story. They do everything together. When Gracie is found and they are in the hospital, we are told that Gracie must find comfort in sleeping on her mother’s chest due to the beat of Annie Clyde’s heart. Greene did a very great job at creating the bond between the two of them. I’m also glad that James stood up for his family. I was worried about that in the beginning. I wonder what made Greene want to pace this story the way she did. I’m also curious to what made her decide to use the dog’s point of view. Oh the questions I have. I would love to create that mother and child bond like she did. I think that is one of my biggest take away’s from this novel.