What I have enjoyed most about Nick Flynn's style so far is his ability to be blunt. He writes about events that had to be life shattering, but he writes about them casually. As if he is thinking "This is how it is and there's no changing it."
So far the memoir is primarily about his life and how he has been affected by his dad. What I am most intrigued by is the line where he writes, "If I let him inside I would become him, the line between us would blur, my own slow-motion car wreck would speed up." Flynn see's his life going in the same direction as his father's, but the only thing he's really done to thwart it is avoid his father.
I was also drawn in by Flynn's perspective on what is appealing about working at the shelter. "At the shelter no one asks where you come from or why you ended up there," he writes. As appealing as that may be to a man in the position he is in, he still has a desire to answer these questions. If he didn't there would be no book to read. I find that idea interesting because it creates a contrast between the silence he thinks he needs and the human desire to share stories.
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Megan,
ReplyDeleteI too have enjoyed ABNSC, though I think the haphazard narrative detracts somewhat from the emotional pull of the story. Flynn has lived a tortured, fractured live, and I felt as I read the story that had the plot been a tad more linear the truly devastating moments would have been all the more effective. But still, I am very interested to see where it goes in pt. 3!
-Peter
Good post Megan. Any passages in particular that you found "life shattering."
ReplyDeletePeter, same question. Thanks for reading others' blogs!