![]() ![]() In that way, Down City is a chilling rebuttal to the old writing 101 adage of “write what you know. Carroll’s life story is harrowing to read on its own, but the way she meticulously processes each new detail gives the book startling clarity. There’s more than these five points, but I think these are great starters. I’ll summarize for you in my usual five points. Carroll dissects old police reports and interviews witnesses the same as she fact-checks her earliest memories: the way her father laughed, the almond-y smell in her mother’s car. THE BASICS Title: Marlena Author: Julie Buntin Genre: Contemporary Fiction Structure: Linear first-person with varying time perspectives First Line: Tell me what you can’t forget, and I’ll tell you who you are. ![]() Her father, a depressed alcoholic, died when she was 18. Who is culpable Obviously Cat isn’t, but at the same time, she’s involved. She is really looking into the eye of self-destruction she’s reached the point when thrill is replaced by need. Through sparse prose like this, Carroll writes about her parents’ deaths through disparate lenses: as a detached crime reporter, as a creative storyteller, as a victim seeking closure, as a mourning daughter.Ĭarroll’s mother disappeared when she was just old enough to remember her, murdered by two drug dealers with mafia connections. For Marlena, those repercussions are very clear: She doesn’t survive. Its main identifying building is a convention center, she writes, but there is no convention. ![]() Downcity is a section of Providence, Rhode Island that Leah Carroll describes as “sedate, nearly silent” as if the land itself is a grave. ![]()
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