Response to "Curtis and Deangelo"

This story was quite unique, in terms of its content but also because of the approach it took to the storytelling. It did a very good job of giving the characters unique voices and, for the most part, they translated well onto paper. Their personalities were unique and interesting and they kept me reading. The story seemed to be about a man who has been messing around in Las Vegas and he runs into his brother, who I assume he has not seen in some time. They talk about their father and a car accident he was in and the ramifications of it, and then at the end you learn that the father died in surgery. I feel like Vegas was supposed to play an important role in the story and perhaps be some sort of metaphor or driving force, but I never really figured out what it was. The story was really quite confusing and all over the place, I thought. I never got a whole idea of what was happening at any point and then it would jump into something new and bring in new confusion. It lacked focus. The dialogue was interesting and had some clear voices, but it didn't always seem to be going anywhere. In the conversation at the end that led to the big news of the father's death, everything just fell off. I wanted more emotion, more inner conflict (or outward), and more clarity. There were a number of interesting events, but I do not know what the point of them was and in what way they drove the story forward. There were also a number of grammatical errors, even beyond the ways of speaking by the characters.