I think that's what Diaz was doing as well. Now, you may not LIKE that feeling of being a bit "at sea," but in both cases the writer is constructing his work in order to give the reader something, which is not selfish.

Fair enough. I'm the first to say that I often have incredibly knee-jerk reactions and as I said, it's not that I was saying *insert big booming voice o'doom* this is how it is, just how it seemed to me and I'm kind of rolling it around in my head and trying to figure things out.

Then again, I also didn't care for Garp either. I don't like feeling as if I've been left out of something and I don't like flipping back and forth in a book to make sure "did I read this? Did I miss something?"

I can appreciate that that was just the effect he was going for and I can respect the hell out of the mastery of craft it takes to accomplish something like that. It's just not a reading experience I particularly enjoy.

Which of course, then leaves me questioning if I'm lacking something as a reader. And consequently, is it something that holds me back as a writer?

I love Garp, and that packed quite a punch, especially since the car accident almost leaves you laughing in its ridiculousness, as well as the tragedy.

However, his most recent (Until I Found You) really disturbed me because I almost felt he was indulging in a personal fantasy of a young, pubescent boy having sex with an older girl.

I remember hearing John Irving talk about Garp. He deliberately doesn't tell us what happened in the accident. As you are reading the next part of the book, you start noticing Walt isn't there and then you flip back and look for a mention and you read on with a feeling of dread. This is the experience that Irving wanted the reader to have and it is exactly the experience I had. He kept information from the reader, but it was in service of a specific experience.

I vividly remember going page after page and saying to myself "Hello, where's Walt?". I love that experience as a reader.

Congratulations, Jilli! Is author the most prevalent profession here at b.org? I used to think librarian or programmer or actuary. But published writer is up there now.

I vividly remember going page after page and saying to myself "Hello, where's Walt?".

I haven't read Garp yet, but were you perhaps going, "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALT!!!!"?

I love that experience as a reader.

Yeah, the Garp thing sounds like something I'd like. I like when the author withholds information in a realistic way; that is, there's no reason for the characters to explain to the reader so they don't engage in awkward exposition.

Is author the most prevalent profession here at b.org?

Seriously -- sometimes I forget and just assume that most people I know would have books out. Congrats, Jilli!

Yay, Jilli!

Seriously -- sometimes I forget and just assume that most people I know would have books out.

I was talking to this woman in a bar who was telling me she just wrote a book, and I was asking her questions about her agent, her word count and stuff like that, and she was like, "Are you a writer, too? How do you know all this?"

Seriously -- sometimes I forget and just assume that most people I know would have books out. Congrats, Jilli!

Hmmm, maybe I should bribe my housemate to have Buffista books somehow come up more often in Amazon searches...

Congratulations Jilli!!

I like when the author withholds information in a realistic way; that is, there's no reason for the characters to explain to the reader so they don't engage in awkward exposition.

P-C, I love you. And I'm going to tell you why and then we can pause to Laugh at Barb and how incredibly silly she is.

The manuscript I'm working on right now? Lots of withholding. There are some very, very key parts of the character's past that affect actions she's taken throughout the course of the story thus far, but the reader doesn't know what happened, specifically in her past, to make her behave this way.

The few people who've read it have even gone, "Buzzah? Barb? WTF??" and I'm all like "in time, my darlings. In time, all will be revealed."

And it will be-- in bits and pieces, as it happens in real life. And yes, it's been a deliberate choice-- it had to be. The story's written in First Person POV, so for the bits of exposition to happen, there has to be a reason-- a real reason-- for it to happen, beyond "I'm going to sit here and think Deep Thoughts of My Past for You, Dear Reader."

But it wasn't until P-C phrased it just that way, that the proverbial light bulb went off above my head.

Good God, I really should be taken out back and smacked upside the head. But instead, I offer myself up to be laughed at-- goodness knows I'm laughing at myself.

"I'm going to sit here and think Deep Thoughts of My Past for You, Dear Reader."

Exactly! I mean, have you read Sharp Objects? I think you should. Because it sounds like it does just what you want to do. It's a first-person POV, and the main character is very damaged, but she doesn't sit there and spill out all the details about how she is and what her past was like. You just pick up on it gradually, and it's really unsettling that way. Because you go into a book with a blank slate, making your assumptions of a character based on what you read, and then there's one line that totally throws you off because you don't know exactly what it means, so you just file it away until you get another line that seems to confirm that, yeah, that one line DID mean what you thought it meant, and it's fun.

I am all about mystery teases to keep me reading. Sometimes, it's not just about wanting to know what's GOING to happen, but what HAPPENED. Hell, that's how this story works, really.