Thoughts on "The Lottery"

(15seconds after finishing the story) WOW I literally am at a loss for words right now. I had no clue where that story was going until the 5th paragraph from the end. I really don't know how I feel about this story. All I can say is I haven't had a story evoke this much emotion in quite some time. WOW

Thoughts on "Midair:

I really enjoyed Frank Conroy's story "Midair". I found it to be extremely thought provoking and introspective. The first thing I noticed was Conroy's point of view. The third person POV is really effective in this story. I liked how Conroy seemed to jump from one moment in time to the next. One of my favorite lines in the story is when Conroy describes Sean holding his father's hand, "His hand, wrist, and part of his forearm are enclosed in his father's fist." That line has much detail and I as a reader was able to put myself in Sean's position and really get into the story.

Thoughts on "Used Boy Raisers"

It wasn't until my third time through Grace Paley's "The Used Boy Raisers" that I finally was able to understand the dialogue. I've never been a big stickler on grammar but Paley's disregard for quotation marks really made the first two times reading the story difficult.
Moving on from the quotation mark conundrum I found Paley's story to be very unique and interesting. From the very start I was intrigued at the names she gave her two  husbands, Livid and Pallid. To use livid and pallid as adjectives in one sentence and then make Livid and Pallid their names in the next was really interesting to me. I really enjoy how she did that.
The story's intensity really picks up when Pallid suggest sending the boys to a reading school in one of the Churches. Livid obviously has strong feelings against this and the ensuing dialogue is very intriguing.
I did not feel like the ending wrapped anything up for the reader. I found it to be very open ended. While this technique may work for Paley, I don't really feel like I would be comfortable finishing a story is such fashion.