I am not sure why Henry Wiggen, the main character in Bang The Drum Slowly, was thinking so hard about cheating on his wife with a flight attendant. If you haven't read the book, Wiggen hears from his friend Bruce that he needs to go out to Minnesota and see him. The two of them play for a baseball team but Bruce informs Wiggen that he is terminally ill. Bruce tells him this after Wiggen flies to Minnesota to see him. The book is written in the first person of Wiggen, who, upon being recognized as the baseball player on his flight by the attendant, considers sleeping with her.
Wiggen acknowledges that, had he done so, he would've regretted it later, but it is puzzling as to why he would be so reckless. Perhaps it is a way of showing that he isn't loyal to his wife. Henry only knows that something is wrong with Bruce but he doesn't know what. Maybe he is stressed and not necessarily thinking straight when having these thoughts. Also, Wiggen's language in the writing (he's not the author, just telling the story in the 1st person) is a little choppy, and his grammar isn't great, so there's a chance the author is trying to show us that he's not really smart or thoughtful.
Why would Wiggen consider cheating on his wife on the plane ride to Minnesota?
This trilogy is my favorite baseball series of all time. BtDS is so incredibly sad. Did you read The Southpaw first? I love the narrative voice in these novels, and the plot is pretty cool, too.
ReplyDeleteThis would make a PERFECT model for the novella you'll write in a few weeks. Please consider trying this.
No I haven't read The Southpaw yet. I heard about this one first and, upon a little bit of research, I found out that BtDS is not actually a sequel, although a lot of the characters are the same.
ReplyDeleteWe'll probably learn about it in the next week, but are we going to model our novella after a specific piece of writing?