DEPENDS

So I spent a lot of time on the beach this past week, and I did a lot of reading, and finished The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence. The narrator is a 91 year old lady who is really grumpy and crabby, and constantly finds fault with everything around her. The story jumps back and forth from the past to the present, so you basically get an entire account of her life. Or at least what she wants you to know about her life. That's what I'm coming to find out about first person narrative--it's biased! I'm sure Terri, since she is the only one who reads this academic journal, is like, duh it's told from one person's specific viewpoint, it's going to be biased! I guess I never really looked at it that way, and I've been writing in first person for awhile, and tried to keep it as fair as possible...but people don't work that way. In first person, you are going to get one viewpoint. Unless the writer is highly skilled and can pull off showing the truth through other characters, which this writer did.
Anyway, more about the novel. Basically her life sucked. She married a man she didn't love, lived in poverty, raised two sons, one she loved, the other she didn't really care for, the son dies a stupid pointless death (isn't all death pointless though?), and she ends the book...dying? With some disease? YOU DON'T KNOW! As I said before, the narrator is very bitter. This summer, I spent 11 days with my grandma (who is 88? 89?) and found that she was more bitter than usual. Usually she complains, but every now and then she'll lighten up and smile. This past vacation she complained the majority of the time, and rarely made an effort to talk to Kristin or I. This book kind of gave me a viewpoint into her life. In all honesty, I don't understand her. I can't begin to imagine what her life must be like, because I can walk without pain. I can reach for things, and move around, and see more clearly. And I'm pretty sure that she doesn't understand my lifestyle as well. It was interesting to read from this narrator's perspective. Pretty much this book has taught me that I will NEVER put my parents in a nursing home against their wishes. It seems cruel that they cared for me all these years (and I haven't been the most considerate or fun person to be around), and then when they need me to shove them in a place they don't want to be. When it got rough we me, they didn't give me up for adoption or put me in foster care. Seva, right?
Also, in the book, the narrator really loves this one son, John. Well John has a little girlfriend, Arelene. At one point, the narrator and Arelene are talking, and the narrator is telling Arelene that John isn't good for her, because he is a drunk, and no one can really change people, so she will be really disappointed if she goes her whole life trying to change people. Arelene gets really pissy and rants about how the narrator will never understand John like she does.
I got really mad when I read that, and thought how stupid Arelene was, but then it hit me...
Yeah that was Karma. Not going to lie, I have said that a lot. Not ever to Glen's mom's face, but to Glen. And I was thinking about how in the book, the narrator spent a lot of her time with her son, so it's fairly obvious that she is going to know him in ways Arelene never could. Likewise, Arelene will know John in different ways too, but neither one will ever know John better. Just different. So I have changed my mind about Glen's mom.
Overall the book was good though. The writing was flowery and annoying at times, and I had a hard time getting into it at first. The author liked to throw in random awkward lines that I can't really remember, but other than that. It was good. I think it was good to read for understanding at least. I think we all possess a certain amount of disillusion about getting old.