Short Story Review: "An Arranged Marriage" by Nell Freudenberger

9:43 AM Sharon 0 Comments

Nell Freudenberger was born on April 21, 1975. She lives in New York City.

Her story, “An Arranged Marriage,” appeared in the September 6, 2010, issue of The New Yorker

The protagonist of the story, Amina is quite intriguing. I find her character was well developed but the story wasn't. The story just seemed to fall flat and become boring after a few paragraphs. Amina's narrative is a little confusing and takes some time getting used to. The narrative seems shift all over the place that I have to go back and re-read what was written. The pacing of the story was quite slow, I found it hard to keep track and found it hard to keep my interest in reading the story.

The story is a about Amina, a girl from a Bangladesh family and because of her father's incompetence she goes on the internet, AsianEuro.com to find a man, or a mate. The man, George is an American. They exchange emails for a few months and Amina eventually moves to the U.S.

I would have liked to know more about the character, George. The story doesn't tell us much about him at all. In this story, I felt there was a lot of things that were touched on, but there was no further mentioning of it, which made for me, felt like there were holes in the story.

To me it, the story wasn't a satisfying to read.

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Creative Writing Blog Assignment: Efflorescence of Romance

9:54 PM Sharon 0 Comments

Once upon a mid-day spring, there was a fifteen year old fair maiden named Lady Sydelle. There also lived a young lord whose name was Joseph whom Sydelle did not know until May 26^th of 1527. The two met at an annual fair and became immediate friends and soon they became lovers. Their love blossomed into a divine flower, but like a flower, their love began to wilt.


Photo By: Natalie Nesser (my favourite photographer)

Eight months of being a couple, their relationship began its’ rocky path. Lord Joseph could not put up being lectured by Sydelle about his late nights with his friends and Lady Sydelle could not bear Joseph’s immature behavior. The two were drifting apart. One day, Sydelle walked into his bedroom to find Joseph and another lady embracing.

Sydelle spoke. “I deemed you loved me.”

“Sydelle, it is not what you think,” responded Joseph.

“You are not the same person I had once loved,” Sydelle pointed out. Tears stained her face like blood on a knight’s sword.

“I think we need some time for ourselves,” she stated.

“Wait! Sydelle, let me explain!” cried Joseph.

Sydelle took off running.

Several weeks had passed and Sydelle could not bear the emptiness she felt. She still had emotions for Joseph. She longed for him and she longed for his affection. Sydelle decided that she would give him another chance and began to make her way to his castle.

“Joseph, I am sorry, but I have missed you,” Sydelle spoke softly.

“Sydelle, you did not let me explain. I swear that lady you saw me with, she was in love with me. You are my one and only,” explained Joseph, “I am sorry if it felt like we were drifting apart, but sometimes I cannot stand you.”

“You should speak, you infuriate me all the time,” Sydelle answered with a smile.

Joseph whispered in her ear. “Cupids’ arrow is the arrow that hit me when I met you. I love you now and forever.”

Love is like a flower; it may wane and die but every spring there will always be a new flower. The same flower a new life. The same couple a new love.

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PostFiction Photos

1:41 PM Sharon 3 Comments

Here are photos from CreComm 3 Class Publishing Project. Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at Republic.

3 comments:

Strange shaped food

3:26 PM Sharon 0 Comments

I love food and cheese...

I was snacking on Cheezies the other day at work and I discovered a J shaped Cheezie! It was probably one of the most exciting things that happened all night during my work shift...yeah, I get excited about the strangest things.

Anyway, from that moment I remembered back to the time in 2007 when I was munching on baby carrots and I found a check mark shaped carrot. It reminded me of Nike. I named it the Nike carrot. It didn't live long though because I ate it.

It's funny how the strange looking foods were all in the colour of orange.

But anyway, a year later I was munching on a bag of baby carrots again and I found a 'less than' sign shaped carrot.

I hated Pre Cal math during that time. I think it was trying to tell me something. ^_^ Don't eat carrots, do your math homework. Yeah right.

Yes, I had to document these interesting discoveries.

Question, have you ever encountered strange looking foods? if you did what did it resemble?

Anyway happy eating!

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Interesting morning

4:16 PM Sharon 1 Comments

This morning, I managed to scare a bunch of passengers on my bus ride to school. I was sitting on the bus and glanced down to the text message I had on my phone. As I was replying to the text. I was surprised by a fellow fluttering moth flying bug thing that perched on my arm.

I squealed and jumped up from my seat and immediately did an arm flap to get the bug off. I thought the freakin' bugs were dead by now? Shouldn't they be dead by now? or at least gone in hibernation?

The passengers sitting on the bus wondered what was wrong. I was embarrassed and said "I got scared of a bug." People must have thought I was a freak. Who get's scared of a bug?

I am extremely afraid of bugs or anything that looks creepy. Even a spider could scare me.