From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 09:19:00 -600

Robin raised a question about the significance of Mrs. Partridge's name. I don't really know about any symbolic meanings related to
"partidge" so can't even hazard a guess. There is a lot of bird imagery in the book, however, so her name fits in in that sense. I think of partidges as just ordinary little birds, nothing particularly showy or significant. Does anyone else have any thoughts on Mrs. Partridge's name?
  Mrs. Partridge reminded me a bit of the classical Greek character Teiresias, the "blind seer." This is another example of Creech's use of irony.
  Robin earlier raised a question about Creech's use of language, another aspect that is so distinctive in the book. Each character has a unique voice that she is able to convey through dialogue, from Mary Lou's thesaurus-inspired interjections to Gramps' playful mispronunciations (eg. "car-bust-er-ator" for "carburetor"). At the same time, she establishes and maintains such a strong sense of Sal's voice through the narrative. Does anyone else have any other thoughts on Creech's use of language?
                             --KT Horning
                               CCBC UW-Madison
Received on Fri 14 Jul 1995 10:19:00 AM CDT