Fiction Reading

Fiction Reading:
Marjorie Sandor and Tracy Daugherty Fiction Reading
Thursday, December 3, 5 pm

Helmut Stern Auditorium

I enjoyed both Marjorie Sandor’s and Tracy Daugherty’s readings to some extent, though I definitely felt more drawn to Marjorie’s writing. She writes of her past and of the trials and tribulations that led up to who she is as a person today. She read from two of her works, Portrait of My Mother, Who Posed Nude in Wartime and A Night of Music and The Night Gardener: A Search For Home.
Though the first work of writing was pleasant to hear performed, it was The Night Gardener: A Search For Home that really struck me. One part in particular that Marjorie read aloud was an excerpt about a restaurant she used to go to; she describes how the restaurant was the color green, a unique shade of green, and of how she had a strange affinity to all things green. She described it as “the amazing green.”
I’m not sure why this excerpt in particular stood out to me, but even though a strange liking of green may be a strange thing for one to invest such interest in, we all have our own strange desires into which we pour our passions. Though I myself do not particularly like the color green, I can still relate to how one aspect of interest can apply to such a wide range of situations in reality.
Tracy Daugherty’s writing, at least the parts he read out loud, were nice, but nothing that particularly grabbed my attention. He spent quite a whiles ranting about very hipster-style subjects such as cats and wine. Cats are nice and wine is nice, but again—nothing that moved me.
Overall, it was a pleasant reading, filled with various subjects matter that were all nice to hear read aloud. Marjorie Sandor is, in my opinion, quite a wonderful writer, and since Tracy Daugherty is married to her, I suppose I like him as well.