Response to "Series of Omissions"

In the story that Matt wrote this week, I see that he took a slightly different approach than had been taken for the most part. The story he wrote, "Series of Omissions", was a very different story, if I would classify it as a story. To me, it read as just a long eulagy. It is merely a remembrance of the family members who no longer have the father of the family with them in life. The story keys in on a few facts and memories, and it seems to simply go through these one after another with the recurring theme of beginning the paragraphs with "He is survivied by...". You then learn of the complexities of the late father's life through what these other people remember of him. I like this writing tool, as it is indirect but still forthright in everything it presents. In the way that many times people often are too blunt or too vague in the way they tell a story, this does a good and interesting job of presenting it all without beating you over the head. There are a number of characters in this story, but you are given no names other than Norman O'Connor but only the family roles that these people live out. I was somewhat conflicted if I thought that more names would be helpful, but I decided I like it because you are at least given enough of background information to be able to infer many things about character traits. In the end, I feel like there was a nice and complete idea given of who Norman was, and it is truly intriguing, but the story itself if somewhat lacking. The only problem is that it wasn't written exactly as a story and since the main character is already dead, it leaves no room for character development. It was peculiar but enjoyable, and I felt like it was written with skill and precision from line to line. Good stuff on the whole.