Response to T.C. Boyle

In "The Love of My Life", I feel like T.C. Boyle does a fantastic job in many ways of accomplishing what it seems was the intention to accomplish. Throughout the entire piece, the most overwhelming observation of mine was the way the mood seemed so very real that it was practically tangeable. In the beginning of the story, I have to admit that I almost felt like it was I who was love stricken as China and Jeremy were. This is perhaps somewhat an unrealistic portrayal of love and it could be seen as over the top in the depiction of their budding relationship, but I think the meaning and capturing of the mood was more important that the actual facts of the matter. The language used in the piece was rich with descriptive language and it seemed so poetic that it seemed to really capture the powerful emotions that were being thrown about. And later when things became far more dreary, I once again was stricken with the emotion of the story and started to become worried and depressed by the events that were unfolding. The piece seemed so full of life when it was proclaiming the young love and it died with the death of the birthed child.

I also enjoyed the way the story progressed, with the way it first outlined what it needed to (being primarily the emotions present in the story) and moved from event to event seamlessly. One thing that I am not completely sold on, as far as liking the story goes, is the character development. The characters themselves seem more like containers of polarized emotion more than thinking and breathing people. There seemed to be no middle ground by the characters when it came to their analysis of events, and they did not seem to do the realistic task of thinking things through. Another thing that I did not drool over for its greatness was the ending. Sure, it was simply disappointing that China ended up betraying Jeremy, but that is not because of poor writing. What I did not like was the way it ended on a non-event. Perhaps it was just a selfish thought as a reader, but I wanted to know more of the facts of the matter, and know what Jeremy thought as well in finality. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the short story.