Louanne and Sylvia at the mall.
(from Tin House, vol. 9, number 1)
Like she’s moving her torso but her feet don’t move, and then sometimes she’ll take one step, and it feels like a thesis statement. Like it is a topic sentence about her butt.
Louanne is the upbeat, perhaps naive but also curiously awe-inspiring hanger on. Sylvia is her inattentive and uncaring friend who uses Louanne for a ride to the mall. Jack is her boyfriend, kinda your basic young doof, except he’s probably got some kinda of triangle thing going on, him, Sylvia and mean hottie Nature. The kids are probably high school age, immature and devoid of empathy, and so they are sort of marvelous to observe through Louanne’s almost scientific (and often comic) observations. This story kick ass. It’s a topic sentence for kicking ass. Kinda.
Good to see you’re back!
My girlfriend just gave me this issue of Tin House for Christmas, along with a gift subscription which I am very excited about.
I read Lemonade yesterday and found the character of Louanne to be fascinating. I agree her observations seem almost scientific, and yet it’s as if they have no actual meaning for her. She observes, but somehow doesn’t react to what she observes.
And yet, sometimes even what she chooses to observe is funny