Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Week 3 Reading Response: Trina and Trina


            I really enjoyed the story Trina and Trina by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc.  The way in which she was able to blend together investigative journalism with very personal emotions was quite impressive.  She had a long and difficult relationship with Trina, her subject, which could have biased the story and made it hard to trust the narrator, but instead evolved it from a good piece to a great one.  I almost felt like the story would have been unbearable to read from a clinical, unemotional point of view.  It made me as a reader feel as though my intense feelings about Trina were justified since the narrator had them too.  That sort of honesty also made me trust the narrator even more because she was disclosing her opinions right off the bat.

            I felt that one of the strongest aspects of this piece was the multitude of ways in which LeBlanc describes Trina.  Almost every time we encounter Trina in the story she is described, whether her clothes or how she is behaving.  It was very easy to imagine what Trina was like, and it helped me as a reader connect even more with the narrative as it was unfolding. 

            I thought the ending was the most tragic part of the whole piece, portraying the end of the friendship between LeBlanc and Trina.  At one point she says, “I don’t believe she’ll make it and this doesn’t hurt me, now.  I’ve long since prepared for the news that she’s died, so that any other outcome seems manageable, almost upbeat.”  This really hit me because I felt this way once about a friend.  LeBlanc ultimately had to move on because she could no longer be optimistic about this girl’s life.  The ending with all the phone calls was really powerful and I thought it really gave strong finality to their relationship and to the piece itself.

3 comments:

  1. I totally agree, Cassie. What could have resulted in a much too long and drawn-out work of narrative journalism became a piece ripe with necessary details and emotions. There are certainly times when I felt frustrated with LeBlanc for her decision to continue her friendship with Trina despite its self-destructive nature (maybe more so for Trina), and it's great that she writes in a way that gives her readers access to those feelings as well.

    I'm interested to hear what you think about the title of LeBlanc's essay. That's one thing I didn't get to in my response but feel is really important to examine (as is the title of Orlean's "The American Man At Age Ten"). I often take titles for granted and try not to assign them to my stories carelessly, but “Trina and Trina” is an obviously well thought-out title because weaved throughout the narrative are LeBlanc’s ruminations on how similar she and Trina are, to the point where she’s projecting her assumptions and norms onto Trina’s situation. For me, this title signifies a fusion of the two characters into one, but in the end, they go their separate ways. I haven’t thought through it much more, so maybe we can discuss this in class!

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  2. Cassie,

    It's interesting to here you commenting on the authors well rounded journalistic voice as that is a main strength of your own personal writing style. I also found what you wrote about how this piece would be unbearable if written from a more clinical perspective. To me what defines that 'unbearable' 'clinical' style is the lack of certain details with the inclusion of others. It is in this way that I found the piece a little unbearable. The author seemed unattached or in invested during the most pivotal moments of this piece. Namely, writing nonchalantly of the single more traumatic event in Trina's life (her being molested by sal). Maybe that is not a clinical voice after all, but I was still frustrated by it and I wondered what you thought.

    Thoughts? (Maybe in class)

    Woody

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  3. 1. We don't even pretend to be "objective" or "unbiased" in narrative journalism.
    2. Let us all ban "in which" from our writing.
    3. Yes, we must talk about the title, as Emily suggests.

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