sometimes i get so caught up in the believablity of books that i lose track of the story. it doesn’t happen with everything i read, just those books where something doesn’t quite ring true or as plausible.
there was one book, the name of which i can’t remember, where i was wrapped up in the years not adding up right that it quashed my enjoyment of the story.
so i am traipsing along through the fourth hand, and enjoying it muchly. it’s unlike any of irving’s other books (and i’ve read them all many times). i find irving telling the reader much more than he usually does. mostly he’s a show ’em kind of guy. weighing in at just over 300 pages, this book is quite a departure, from the usual irving tomes.
anyway, i am reading along and he’s talking about the clausens from green bay, wisconsin. i think this is pretty groovy and all having lived in wisconsin for 5+ years. but then irving makes a fatal mistake.
doris clausen’s father is talking about how doris can get patrick, the main character, green bay packer tickets and the father says, “and tickets are wicked hard to come by around here.”
yeah. nobody from wisconsin would ever say wicked hard. not ever. irving had up to this point, pretty successfully gotten the wisconsiness of the characters right. so i am a bit disappointed with him. i was so taken aback by the phrase that i had to put the book down and come write about.
wicked hard. . . in wisconsin? ha!
1. i don’t like the word tome. it is generally misused.
2. no one around here would say “wicked hard” either. but that didn’t stop me from saying it about 351 times the other night.
3. paul newman makes the best tortilla chips of all time.
1. i like the word tome and i used it correctly
2. you are weird and wrong
3. tortilla chips are delicious.
1. so, like, all these books he is writing are just volumes of a larger whole project?
2. you’re a doofis.
I believe the accepted spelling is “doofus”…
Personally, I’m glad to see Irving stretching himself. I think I’m one of the only fans of one of his previous attempts, “A Son of the Cirucs”…
I feel that I can speak with authority on the use of the word “wicked,” since I’m originally from Mass and I grew up with “wicked ” (fill in the blank) as an integral part of my awful vocabulary. I would never believe anyone outside of Northeast saying “wicked hard.” In fact, I am a freak in NY because I use that word. What was Irving thinking???
if i spell doofis “doofus,” i would have to say “doof-uss.” i want to say “doof-iss,” so i spell that sumbitch “doofis.”
clearly, i am right. also, i am hungry. wicked hungry, even.
wicked blah, blah, blah
the motion picture “Mr. Deeds” w/ Adam Sandler
is wicked cool! the only wicked _____ thing I’ve heard in Wisconsin.