Lynn Z Bloom Marguerite Van Cook

[Marguerite Van_Cook]

#551

This is the voice of a wonderful mimic. Bloom constructs her story with a polyphony of personalities demonstrated through snippets of conversation. The numerous voices literally fill the narrative as if to fill the changing rooms at a local pool. Her voice is empathetic, energetic and inclusive. Her frequent use of “we,” the first person plural situates her inside the group so that this voice is not only inside of the geographical space, but also inside the conversation and action.
Bloom also reports kindly on the details of what she sees around her. She reports accurately, commenting on the women’s anxieties and flaws with a tone of understanding and acceptance. Again this tone of kindness serves to place her on a level with the other women as she chooses not to judge. Indeed, she makes clear the absence of judgment, which sets up the tone of security which governs the passages up until her attack. The voice takes pleasure in the conversations and the piece is peppered with her questions, which interestingly allows her stand outside of her self and see herself within the group from outside. In fact this provides the readers with yet another way of experiencing this communal world.
Bloom build this depiction of female dynamics so successfully that when she at times takes the action outside of the locker room, the reader is still connected with the social properties of the locker room. ( I was reminded of the Assia Djbar’s hammans, another site of female autonomy).
I felt that she rushed through the episode of the attack and that understandably her voice changed, and never recovered its authority. The piece lost its power in the brief pages after the attack as it seemed to resolve too quickly. The brilliant reportage of the opening passages seems a little incongruous here. Even though her ending is smart, these were the only moments that felt inauthentic. Perhaps that is the take away from this narrative — that things are never the same.
The sentence that I chose as beautiful also seems to carry the entire notion of women’s bonding (in so many ways) it has it all, ” I tell people whose names I do not know things I have never told my own sister, fears, frustrations, secrets bubbling to the surface”(42).

• This topic was modified 11 years, 6 months ago by Marguerite Van_Cook.

[Sondra Perl]

#553

Marguerite:

Your inference… “Her frequent use of “we,” the first person plural situates her inside the group so that this voice is not only inside of the geographical space, but also inside the conversation and action.” I agree with you. Even though the members of the rec center are for the most part, individuals and not in any formed friendships, Bloom suggests that she is in a communal space (locker room) and she has solidified and emphasized that she is part of a much greater group. This is significant to the reader because it proposes that Bloom has navigated the tricky waters (no pun intended) of establishing herself within a previously formed circle of women. By understanding this inclusion, the reader knows that there is also an inherent responsibility for unspoken trusts.

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