I read a nowel named Full Stop. It was written by Alecia McKenzie, and it tells about Carmen who is in thirties and her grandmother Scottie. They send letter to each others and for Carmen the reading is quite difficult and annyoing, because her grandmother doesn’t use any punctuation. They disscuss about normal every day things, about work and neighbours, but they also speak a lot about Carmens mother and about her brother.

Carmen was born when her mother was very young, so her grandmother has raised her. Carmens mother moved to England to get a job, and when Carmen was about two years old, she got a baby brother who also moved to her and their grandmother. I’m not sure where does their grandmother live but they talk about an iseland which in not in USA and I think it’s quite near to where Carmens mother lives (she lives still in England), so maybe it’s Ireland. Anyway Carmen lives now in New York and her brother Richard lives in California.

In every letter grandmother Scottie talks about ”Normy”, and when Carmen writes a letter back to Scottie, she sends kisses from Normy to Scottie. In one letter they talk something like Carmen would be pregnant and Normy and she are thinking about ”taking the baby”, so maybe Normy is Carmens boyfriend. Almost every letter includes money from Carmen to her grandmother, sometimes Scottie uses the money to paint her house and sometimes she puts it in to the bank.

God is very important to Carmens grandmother and she talks about it in every letter. Carmen is not so sure if God can save Scottie from falling out of ladders when she paints the house. Scottie also tells about thieves who are stealing her neighbours houses and Carmen wants her grandmother to put burglar bars to her windows. But still Scottie thinks that God will save her.

One of the things they disscuss in their letters is Carmens mother. Carmen feels that Scotties is her real mother because she is the one who raised her and her brother, and she is the one who always take care of them. She has seen her mother only once, but her mother keeps writing letters to Carmen.

The story was little bit hard to read because like I told Scottie didn’t use any punctuation. There is also many things that are hard to understand. And the end came very quickly, it just ended.

”Why, Honey?” –novel has been written by Raymond Carver. It is a quite short novel that tells about a mom who is worry about her son. The son acts weird and the mom thinks that he conceal something.

The mom of the story is worried about her son, because he begins to behave particularly. Among other things, the proof is that she found her son’s bloody shirt and in addition, the son vanishes sometimes and he also seems to be hiding things. Moreover, the neighbor says that he saw two boys kill hers cat and one of the kids was her son. The boy also resigned from the job without telling her mom and the boy bought a shotgun and a hunting knife.

I think that the mom´s evidence are a pretty convincing, because they are occurring so much and so often. Sometimes the son acts also threateningly. The evidences are quite clear.

The final paragraph of the letter that the narrator wrote tells about her. She suggests that she is possibly very distressed and she is missing her son. She says that she has been praying to get answers. She seems to be very dubious what has happened. The narrator wrote this letter to response for a letter that is unknown and it´s writer is the unknown person for the reader.

I think that the narrator is reliable, because she is telling about her son. Even she tells some bad and alarming things about the boy, she still apologize him. It is however possible that the narrator downplays her own role in the incidents that she has written in her letter.

The writer of that novel has written very simply and easily readable text. He doesn´t describe hardly at all. The text is nevertheless progressing smoothly and clearly. The novel awakens interestingness because the writer leaves the end open.

Written by toivonenn

Evan Hunter’s short story The Last Spin is a cold summary about gang wars. The plot begins when two men from different gangs meet each other. The two men Danny and Tigo are told to settle the gangs´ relations because of last night’s shootings. The cruel fact is that Danny and Tigo need to play Russian roulette until the end.

First they both are very tough guys and they see each other only as enemies. The Russian roulette starts with only one cartridge in the revolver’s cylinder. Odds are five-to-one. Gangsters are lucky, again and again they target the weapon towards their own heads and pull the trigger coldbloodedly. Without noticing it themselves Danny and Tigo begin talking. The men realize how much they have in common. They speak about their girlfriends, families, and dream about joining the army one day. Gangsters from different gangs decide to be friends. They even notice that the real conflict between the two gangs concerns the gang leaders’ greed of power, it’s not between them. But the game goes on and they must add another cartridge inside the cylinder. Quitting is not an option.

Both of the men are young because they can’t join the army without their parents permission. They are also newcomers in their gangs. In my opinion they are insecure and vulnerable young men trying to find approval and social cohesion from their gangs. As the story goes forward Danny and Tigo slowly take off their masks of tough guys and the real humanity increases in these two ordinary fellows.

Though The Last Spin is only a short story it ties its reader firmly in his or hers seat. Evan Hunter uses colloquial language in the men’s dialogue. It has its own influence on building the atmosphere. Actually without slang language the feeling would be far from what it should be. The story forces the reader to think about chains set up by the surrounding community. Can you be what you want to be or are you just playing a role? Or how hard is it to take off the mask?