Friday, May 8, 2015

#8 Between Rounds- O.Henry


#8 Between Rounds (1906)- O Henry

I think I’m officially making Friday’s O Henry day, at least as far as this project is concerned.  This is the second Friday, so this is the second O Henry story.

This is just a quick window into a poor Irish neighborhood outside of Mrs. Murphy’s boarding house, a couple fights around dinner.  Unless I’m wrong the title refers to their fight as you would refer to boxing rounds.  Between their rounds of yelling and dish throwing the neighborhood is fixated on finding a lost child. 

That’s its, that’s the story. Some story’s are timeless and endearing, this one is not.  From the beginning the language and dialogue seemed a bit stilted.  Sentences like: “Spring was in its heyday, with hay fever soon too follow,” are either bad attempts at cleverness with words or clunky use of alliteration. 

Add to that some outdated or poorly executed dialect made for a ho-hum type of read.  They can’t all be a masterpiece.

Notable Passage: I honestly couldn’t tell in context whether this was meant as a pun: “We would call no one a lobster without good and sufficient claws.”


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