From: Margaret Denman-West <maggie>
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 10:40:22 +0100

To Karen Simonetti, in particular: Thank you for your comments that I have added below. I started Buffalo Tree, kept trying to look past the language - and gave up. That is unusual for me!! I realize it was written as it would have been spoken - but that didn't help me as I struggled with it. NOW - I will check it out again knowing that it is worth the struggle - thanks the reactions you shared with us.

Karen S.----Gee folks, I go on vacation and really hoped to come back to a whole backlog of emails from you all, because Buffalo Tree has got me stumped. I'm picking up with Megan's question about language, because I did find it problematic. The first 40 pages were torture as I tried to understand, place and comprehend what was being said. (Okay, I wanted a glossary!) Then, I just "let go" and continued on with my reading. Sura's characterization is strong and eventually he pulled me. So, I read the book again and this time a very curious thing happened. It wasn't that I knew the slang any better, but there seemed to be some kind of gesault working: not understanding all what was being said (ie, exact meanings of slang) did not detract from the reading, instead it added to the backdrop of this world that I did not know & that Sura managed to live through.


Margaret (Maggie) Denman-West maggie at en.com Cleveland, OH
Received on Mon 25 Aug 1997 04:40:22 AM CDT