Let's start with page one...

Since our first days of discussion C.C. and T.T.T.C. revolved around the first pages each novel I decided I would warm up for class tomorrow by writing about, well, the first page.

In the second and third sentences of the text Chabon describes the boy’s manner of walking in seemingly contradictory ways. He call’s the boy’s gait “dreamy” but then writes, “With each step the boy dragged his toes in the rail bed, as if measure out his journey with careful ruled marks of his shoetops in the gravel” (1). When I read the word “dreamy,” I imagined a rather imprecise way of walking, certainly not one “that measures out his journey.” This strange juxtaposition continues as Chabon describes the boy’s “black hair and pale face…against the green unfurling flag of the downs beyond” (1). Chabon seems to thoughtfully select each word in this first paragraph, giving great care to the order in which each description of the scene is presented. Towards the end of the paragraph he mentions “the old man” in passing as if we should already know who he is and we started reading midway through the story. This sense of familiarity continues throughout the novel.

To be honest, I don’t know what to make of the novel thus far. I wrote about the first pages simply because I didn’t know what else to write about. The novel has made me feel things more than think them. Hopefully class tomorrow will help me turn those feelings into thoughts.