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Slot Machine
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From: Ginny Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 10:00:00 -600
Thanks to Robin, Megan, Rob and Beth for your responses to reading Slot Machine by Chris Lynch.
One of the humorous elements I appreciated in Slot Machine were Elvin's letters to his mother. His letters appear in a different typeface than the novel's first-person narrative. They not only provide comic relief, they contribute substantially to the author's characterization of his main character. Do they also confirm for readers that Elvin is not breaking down under the camp's pressures? Actually, they demonstrate that Elvin already has a "slot" for his life: he's a clever writer. For example, from pages 105-6:
A letter headed" Elvin's Summer Cottage" is addressed to
"Occupant, Elvin's Winter Home" and begins: "Dear Birth Mother" ... Elvin's letter continues: "The entire compound is abuzz. Yes, that's right, it's almost time for Parents' Weekend. Cna you think of anyone who might like to represent my family? ... There's a fellow named Duke who sleeps on the slab next to mine - sleeps, that is, when he's not sitting up rigid in the middle of the night staring at me while I try to sleep - and Duke has generously offered to help. Sees that Dukie has one mother and THREE fathers, and he'll be glad to lend me one. All I have to do is meet the man at the bus on Saturday, tell him I'm his son, and if I catch him at his drugs apex, he'll belive me. ... Or maybe Save the Children could help me out somehow. Give Sally Struthers a call for me, would you? Oh, you're a dear... Your biological son, Oliver Twist."
The next letter home appears on page 136 and says, in part: "Not sure? What do you mean, 'Not sure?' You're not sure if you can make it this weekend? ... Don't toy with me, Mother. I'm not the frail lumpen lad you shoehorned onto that yellow bus a mere forty days and forty nights ago. I'm mean now, like, _Lord of the Flies_ mean ... This is when you have to produce hard evidence that you have actual parents and that you weren't just left here on the grounds when the circus moved on to Providence..."
If you've read Slot Machine (and a couple of you told me last week that you haven't had a chance to get hold of it yet), what was your reaction to Elvin's letters home? to other aspects of Slot Machine? ... Ginny
******************************************************************* Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) A Library of the School of Education University of Wisconsin - Madison
Received on Mon 18 Mar 1996 10:00:00 AM CST
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 10:00:00 -600
Thanks to Robin, Megan, Rob and Beth for your responses to reading Slot Machine by Chris Lynch.
One of the humorous elements I appreciated in Slot Machine were Elvin's letters to his mother. His letters appear in a different typeface than the novel's first-person narrative. They not only provide comic relief, they contribute substantially to the author's characterization of his main character. Do they also confirm for readers that Elvin is not breaking down under the camp's pressures? Actually, they demonstrate that Elvin already has a "slot" for his life: he's a clever writer. For example, from pages 105-6:
A letter headed" Elvin's Summer Cottage" is addressed to
"Occupant, Elvin's Winter Home" and begins: "Dear Birth Mother" ... Elvin's letter continues: "The entire compound is abuzz. Yes, that's right, it's almost time for Parents' Weekend. Cna you think of anyone who might like to represent my family? ... There's a fellow named Duke who sleeps on the slab next to mine - sleeps, that is, when he's not sitting up rigid in the middle of the night staring at me while I try to sleep - and Duke has generously offered to help. Sees that Dukie has one mother and THREE fathers, and he'll be glad to lend me one. All I have to do is meet the man at the bus on Saturday, tell him I'm his son, and if I catch him at his drugs apex, he'll belive me. ... Or maybe Save the Children could help me out somehow. Give Sally Struthers a call for me, would you? Oh, you're a dear... Your biological son, Oliver Twist."
The next letter home appears on page 136 and says, in part: "Not sure? What do you mean, 'Not sure?' You're not sure if you can make it this weekend? ... Don't toy with me, Mother. I'm not the frail lumpen lad you shoehorned onto that yellow bus a mere forty days and forty nights ago. I'm mean now, like, _Lord of the Flies_ mean ... This is when you have to produce hard evidence that you have actual parents and that you weren't just left here on the grounds when the circus moved on to Providence..."
If you've read Slot Machine (and a couple of you told me last week that you haven't had a chance to get hold of it yet), what was your reaction to Elvin's letters home? to other aspects of Slot Machine? ... Ginny
******************************************************************* Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) A Library of the School of Education University of Wisconsin - Madison
Received on Mon 18 Mar 1996 10:00:00 AM CST
