Ah, Flowering Judas =)
This short story has an old school writing technique but has wonderful language. The author, Katherine Anna Porter (1890-1980) incorporated personal life experiences into her writings. This correlation can be seen in ber bio in The Norton Anthology American Literaure; "she lived mainly in Mexico...[she] was involved in revolutionary politics" (972) and her work, Flowering Judas, whose protagonist is a female pondering revoluionary politics that lives in Mexico. By the way, she was married four times. Note to self. Don't get married four times.
I won't elaborate much on the story; read it yourself but I'll tell you my thoughts on the language.
When Braggioni (guy who's crushin on Laura, protagonist) comes to sing to her, she has to clench her teeth and force a smile.
"He scratches the guitar familiarly as thought it were a pet animal, singing passionately off key, taking the high notes in a prolonged painful squeal." I laughed for a good two minutes in class after reading that. Just picture a fat, cocky jerk singing like a complete retard and try not to smile.
I'm pretty sure every girl has had that moment when they have to be polite and put up with a guy they don't like hitting on them. I looove how Porter puts this-
"Now she longs to fly out of this room, down the narrow stairs, and into the street where the houses lean together like conspirators uner a single mottled lamp, and leave Braggioni singing to himself." Even the lifeless houses would be better company, comfort almost, to her as opposed to being with this guy she can't seem to evade.
That's all that really stood out to me.
She's interesting.
