Jan Priddy > Recent Status Updates

Still a good story, but syntax is a HUGE problem. I can't tell how much of this is non-native speaker writing in English and how much is using a mechanical/computer translator.

It is a wonderful story!

I might suggest there is a reason these stories were unpublished during Twain's lifetime. Unlike "The War Prayer" that was suppressed for its satire, these pieces mostly offer little to the reader. The satire on the Bible works, but grows thin... the rest is of less interest. I will soldier on to the end.

118/227. I don't think much of Bernard DeVot's notes.

Was it worse in the US or Canada where First Nations were not only marginalized and discriminated against but legally disenfranchised and UNABLE to even hire a lawyer from 1927 to 1951... Native peoples in the US lost in the courts, but in Canada, First Nations could not even get that far. In both countries treaties and court decisions were frequently (consistently) violated. Thankfully that has begun to change.

To people who haven't been paying attention and/or know Canada mostly as a refuge from the draft etc., it appears a haven. Canada was as brutal (via the official government agencies, and Anglican and other churches) as what happened in the States. Some provinces are as red as Utah and Wyoming. BC isn't one of those, but still.

Ditto fossil fuels.

The chapter on salmon. It see,s to me, Fraser River salmon should be managed by First Nations in consultation with DFO, not the other way around.

"We have help" reminds me the author went to Harvard and knows people who use that expression; and then she deliberately seeks a stranger to put his fingers inside her, which is how I was molested as a child. Catalina is more damaged than she has any right to be. But does damage respect rights? No. There is still the good story buried in this mess of gorgeous language. I hope to finish it quickly.

a story!

The voice is powerful and compelling... but I'm a third of the way in and I'm still waiting for a story. Voice and a potential Jewish rich boy Catalina is working on... some fascinating history that I recall from living through it. It's about 2016, and I'm learning a lot about Harvard.

The chapter "Poetry and Prejudice" had me thinking for a long time. Murder's always wrong and it would have been easiest for Judith to point out. What she said instead is close to something I used to talk about every year while teaching a particular novel with a gay character. My typical class has been my way of humanizing statistics for many years. There averaged at least two non-cis students in each class. I knew.

I feel on stable ground now; the stories she tells about Oregon, about Flight and Soapstone... precious to me.

Loved this chapter, "Beds."