Depending where you look, you will see Stop- Time listed as Literary Nonfiction and as a Novel, which pleases me and points to the fluidity often encountered when we look between genres.
From 1987 until just before his unfortunate death, Frank Conroy headed the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, one of the premier creative writing centers in the country.
The book from which this excerpt comes won multiple awards and continues to garner considerable attention. For our purposes, the writing will help you think of what to say and give you a good example of how to utilize quotations, for he does so with a very deft hand.
Take the time to read carefully and with pleasure this particular work and the other essays, including E. B. White's, for you should find them very, very accessible. Aim for a similar transparency in your own writing.
And note that both White and Conroy are stylists and take great care in their artful presentation: both love words.
Our story concerns outwardly a yo-yo contest. As you read, pay particular attention to all the details connected with the instrument--all the specifics from "Rocking the Cradle" to "The Universe." Conroy gives us a slice of life here.
What themes do you detect in this story? Does Conroy state the big idea directly? While you might come up with multiple themes, from rites of passage to the will to master something, from the enclosed world of "Sunset Theater" to the concluding "Universe," you will be hard pressed to find a thesis statement stated directly in this story--which does not mean that the author writes without specific ideas in mind.
You should aim for a similar effect. Investigate the experience and talk about the ideas involved, but do not seek to lecture the reader.
Note how Conroy uses the dialogue. The first significant use of quotations comes when the twins "Ramos and Ricardo" talk about their craft, and the narrator asks a boy a question. Here the tempo slows--we have paragraphs devoted to a brief time, not nearly as long, say, as the films that Conroy tells us about in a few sentences: showing vs. telling.
And the next very important scene comes at the time of the contest, when more dialogue enters the narrative and time expands: to show generally takes longer than to tell.
Use a scene or two in your memoir with a similar effect in mind: emphasis.
Most of the essay details not simply his mastering the craft but also discussing its significance. He speaks metaphorically about his dogged will to master the device, noting the "vaguely masturbatory" quality of execution and the "geometric purity of it" (242). These descriptions add to the story in that they describe his total infatuation with the yo-yo and the depth of his determination to win the contest.
And secreted here and there we do find lines that emphasize important ideas about this lad's experience: "The yo-yo represented my first organized attempt to control the outside world" (243)--and, perhaps, the name of the great trick says something about what opens up for him: "the universe."
So, while the memoir does not offer a simple conclusion, the narrative suggests numerous ideas about the writer's childhood with which everyone can identify, even if a person has never tried to rock the cradle or Loop the Loop.Enjoy his writing and experiment in your own. Work the details.
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