Juicy Juice

I found this book to be very allusive and vague. It is almost somewhat poetic, but not a poem, which I thought was a very interesting approach for a short story. Some of the lines throughout the book are composed like a poem, but still tell a story. For example in the section First Sleep, the narrator uses several line breaks throughout the section. The sentences are sentences, but just barley, for example, “Five days later. The phone rings. I think. It’s nearing dawn.” (Gladman pg.62)

I think that the common theme throughout the book was that in every story, there was some type of major crisis that had drastically changed the narrator’s life and that they now have to deal with the aftermath. In the section Translation, the narrator seems to be the only one left in her little “town” after an exodus. She alludes to a lot of things such as, “I love this town. It’s still vibrant though I have not seen anyone in years. I am not in jail—they just have gone.” (Gladman pg.10) It makes you wonder what happened to all the people in her town. Where have they gone and why are the alone. It gives the story a sense of mystery. It is at the end of that paragraph that she tells us the there was an exodus, which is what she was alluding to from the start.

Overall, this story book was odd, and oddly enticing. I think that because of the allusiveness yet distinctive detail, it really captures the reader and brings them in. Finishing the entire book really brought it all together for me. I realized that there are several (if not four) different narrators throughout the book. I found a common theme throughout the book of the narrator going through some type of crisis, and the effects it has had on them. I think that they all could be in different locations and possibly going through the same crisis? You can see that each narrator handles it differently, and focuses on different details; such as the fresh juice, in the section Proportion Surviving, or the empty town and fixation of the people returning in Translation. I think these stories show the different effects that change and struggle can bring. It was a very interesting piece to read and analyze.