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Reading ML after TB
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From: Monica R. Edinger <edinger>
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2001 11:29:16 +0100
I am probably one of a handful of people who read Make Lemonade after reading True Believer. In fact I just finished it, spurred to read it because of the interesting discussion here.
It was a different read from True Believer. For one, I had all the comments from ccbcnet roiling around in my mind, try as I might to ignore them. Most problematic for my reading was the issue of race. I thought about it as I read True Believer, but did so without any outside commentary to influence me. It was a different story with Make Lemonade. At times my mind did drift to race as I hit aspects of the text that were mentioned here. Try as I might to read without all that baggage in the back of my mind, I couldn?t. And so my reading was a bit more self-conscious than I would have liked; too meta-cognitive for those into that line of discourse.
Yesterday, a friend who knows both books asked me if I felt, as she did, that LaVaughn seemed somehow older in Make Lemonade than in True Believer.
As we tussled with this idea it struck me that the reason perhaps that LaVaughn seems somehow older in the first book is that the story is really about Jolly more than LaVaughn. The drama is with Jolly; is she going to make it or not? LaVaughn it seems to me is the observer, the teller of Jolly?s story. And although younger than Jolly, does seem older. But True Believer is totally LaVaughn?s story and she is now closer to Jolly's age in Make Lemonade. It is centered around her needs, desires, and wishes. What LaVaughn wants seems much more raw in the second book and it is her upsets and pain I felt while reading it whereas while reading Make Lemonade it was Jolly?s pain that I felt the most.
Make Lemonade has the different parents: Jolly and LaVaughn?s mother. True Believer has two people in love: Lavaughn and her mother. In the first book, Jolly is much more striking and central, it seems to me, than LaVaughn?s mother. Whereas, in the second, it is LaVaughn?s romantic love that is central, her mother?s secondary (at least it was for my reading.)
These are rambling, I know, but perhaps of interest simply because I did not read them in the order they were written. They don?t seem to have to be read in order, but perhaps others on the list will differ.
Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at yahoo.com
Received on Sun 22 Jul 2001 05:29:16 AM CDT
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2001 11:29:16 +0100
I am probably one of a handful of people who read Make Lemonade after reading True Believer. In fact I just finished it, spurred to read it because of the interesting discussion here.
It was a different read from True Believer. For one, I had all the comments from ccbcnet roiling around in my mind, try as I might to ignore them. Most problematic for my reading was the issue of race. I thought about it as I read True Believer, but did so without any outside commentary to influence me. It was a different story with Make Lemonade. At times my mind did drift to race as I hit aspects of the text that were mentioned here. Try as I might to read without all that baggage in the back of my mind, I couldn?t. And so my reading was a bit more self-conscious than I would have liked; too meta-cognitive for those into that line of discourse.
Yesterday, a friend who knows both books asked me if I felt, as she did, that LaVaughn seemed somehow older in Make Lemonade than in True Believer.
As we tussled with this idea it struck me that the reason perhaps that LaVaughn seems somehow older in the first book is that the story is really about Jolly more than LaVaughn. The drama is with Jolly; is she going to make it or not? LaVaughn it seems to me is the observer, the teller of Jolly?s story. And although younger than Jolly, does seem older. But True Believer is totally LaVaughn?s story and she is now closer to Jolly's age in Make Lemonade. It is centered around her needs, desires, and wishes. What LaVaughn wants seems much more raw in the second book and it is her upsets and pain I felt while reading it whereas while reading Make Lemonade it was Jolly?s pain that I felt the most.
Make Lemonade has the different parents: Jolly and LaVaughn?s mother. True Believer has two people in love: Lavaughn and her mother. In the first book, Jolly is much more striking and central, it seems to me, than LaVaughn?s mother. Whereas, in the second, it is LaVaughn?s romantic love that is central, her mother?s secondary (at least it was for my reading.)
These are rambling, I know, but perhaps of interest simply because I did not read them in the order they were written. They don?t seem to have to be read in order, but perhaps others on the list will differ.
Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at yahoo.com
Received on Sun 22 Jul 2001 05:29:16 AM CDT
