Author: John Keuler

At the conclusion of “Hills Like White Elephants”, I considered what operation the couple could possibly be arguing about. Even though Hemingway intentionally does not include any concrete details to guide the reader to any hard conclusions, one can make conjectures from the characters’ emotional responses in their dialogue. When the American man says, “I … Continue reading Hemingway’s Style Read more →

House of Leaves has an innumerable amount of characteristics to it that make it a difficult read. Out of all the things that posed the most issues for me in this experimental novel, Johnny’s convoluted diary entries that come out of chronological order gave me the most trouble. They weave in and out of 1998 … Continue reading House of Leaves – Conclusion Read more →

My friends have seen me read House of Leaves recently. They watch me turn it upside down to read footnotes or flip back to pages to reorient myself with Zampono’s narration after an interruption from Johnny, and they always ask what I’m reading. You can’t just give a quick explanation to describe this book, but … Continue reading Suspense in House of Leaves Read more →

I have read reviews of House of Leaves and seen lists that name it, “the scariest book they have ever read”. The last book I can remember reading that legitimately scared me, or at the least creeped me out, was probably the Goosebumps series from R.L. Stine. However, while reading House of Leaves there was … Continue reading Appendix II in House of Leaves Read more →

Compared to Selling Manhattan, Duffy approaches The World’s Wife in a much different way. We have discussed the concept of The World’s Wife acting as a collection of positive messages of feminism and after seeing how Duffy began to write The Kray Sisters, I believe that to be true. Nestled above the beginnings of The Kray … Continue reading “The Kray Sisters” in MARBL Read more →

Artists do not create without inspiration and Carol Ann Duffy is no different. Taped down to the first page that contains a draft of her poem Recognition, is an aged and browned newspaper clipping. Not knowing the context of the clipping, I perceived it to be from maybe an advice column of sorts. The clip … Continue reading Exploring “Recognition” in MARBL Read more →

I found The Devil’s Wife to have the most interesting and varying structure out of all the poems in The World’s Wife. The poem is split into five different sections and it follows a plot of someone falls for the Devil and eventually spirals down the wrong path. She seemingly commits a heinous crime, as she is sentenced to … Continue reading The Devil’s Wife Read more →

When we were first introduced to Carol Ann Duffy prior to reading her in class, we were told about the scenario of her switching publishers because she believed The World’s Wife was more like pop culture poetry than her previous works. After reading the first half of the book of poetry, I agree. Many of … Continue reading The Comedy of The World’s Wife Read more →

The first half of Carol Ann Duffy’s poems in Selling Manhattan heavily focused on themes consisting of death, illness, and mental instability. However, in the latter half of this book of poetry the themes do not have clear common themes as before. The string of poems from the pages of 47 to 52 tell a … Continue reading Selling Manhattan – The Second Half Read more →

I did some external research on Carol Ann Duffy and saw her described as a ventriloquist and after reading the first half of Selling Manhattan I found three poems that stuck out as prime examples of Duffy’s unique style as a ventriloquist. The poems Dies Natalis, Model Village, and Psychopath have characters that range from … Continue reading Model Village Read more →