A couple of things I forgot to include because I was trying not to stay up too late:
OMG, the wood shop scene, YES, and the Christmas shopping. I think they're why for the longest time I thought I liked Dicey's Song better than Homecoming (in addition to the former being the only one available on Kindle--I assume because it was the Newbery winner--and thus the only one I reread frequently).
The wood shop scene is so good I always find myself wishing the book had ended there. I know there's some closure in seeing how the kids deal with it at the end, and the importance of Gram opening up the attic, but I often read up to the wood shop scene and stop. I'm not much of a crier, but that scene always leaves me deeply moved.
One thing I do like about the ending is Gram telling them about the birthday Bullet got out of. It neatly complements the scene in Runner where she talks to him about it--and now that I think of it, both come at the very end of their respective books
“Are they going to a party?” Maybeth asked. “Momma looks like she’s going to a party.”
“Yes, they were,” Gram said. “Bullet — he didn’t want to go. He wanted to do some fishing or crabbing or anything that would prevent him from spending the afternoon indoors being polite. Now I notice, John doesn’t seem too happy about it either, does he? Did I ever tell you how Bullet didn’t go to that party?” she asked.
Well, of course she hadn’t, and she knew that as well as they did. So Gram began the story.
And there Dicey's Song ends. We don't get the story until Runner, right before Bullet goes off to war:
“You remember that birthday party?”
“Eleanor Brown’s? I remember. I remember you not wanting to go. I remember driving all the way back along the highway, to pick up the clothes you took off.” A reluctant smile moved across her face. “How you got them out of the back of the truck without us noticing, I never knew.”
“One at a time,” he told her. “I leaned way over, so they wouldn’t blow up into view in the mirror.”
“And I remember how you looked when we came around to get you out and you were just . . .”
Bullet waited.
“. . . bare naked, and laughing . . .” She laughed then, and he joined in.
“Anyway,” he said, “I owe you an apology. And Liza, too, because she was looking forward to that party, but she’s not around to hear it. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Oh, I dunno,” his mother said. “It always seemed to me there wasn’t anything else you could have done. Being you.”
Speaking of the end of Runner (you did say to keep the links coming!), this jumped out at me, reading it shortly after Come a Stranger. Bullet talking to Tamer:
“If you’ll give me your word to stay out of Vietnam. Don’t tell me”— He cut off Tamer’s protests—“ because you can, you know it. Have another kid. Stay in school. Be a teacher. Get religion, whatever it takes. That one’s not your war.”
"Get religion." And then the next time we see Tamer, he's Reverend Shipp. Foreshadowing, at the very least, if not Bullet outright influencing the course of Tamer's life.
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Date: 2017-07-04 04:22 pm (UTC)OMG, the wood shop scene, YES, and the Christmas shopping. I think they're why for the longest time I thought I liked Dicey's Song better than Homecoming (in addition to the former being the only one available on Kindle--I assume because it was the Newbery winner--and thus the only one I reread frequently).
The wood shop scene is so good I always find myself wishing the book had ended there. I know there's some closure in seeing how the kids deal with it at the end, and the importance of Gram opening up the attic, but I often read up to the wood shop scene and stop. I'm not much of a crier, but that scene always leaves me deeply moved.
One thing I do like about the ending is Gram telling them about the birthday Bullet got out of. It neatly complements the scene in Runner where she talks to him about it--and now that I think of it, both come at the very end of their respective books
“Are they going to a party?” Maybeth asked. “Momma looks like she’s going to a party.”
“Yes, they were,” Gram said. “Bullet — he didn’t want to go. He wanted to do some fishing or crabbing or anything that would prevent him from spending the afternoon indoors being polite. Now I notice, John doesn’t seem too happy about it either, does he? Did I ever tell you how Bullet didn’t go to that party?” she asked.
Well, of course she hadn’t, and she knew that as well as they did. So Gram began the story.
And there Dicey's Song ends. We don't get the story until Runner, right before Bullet goes off to war:
“You remember that birthday party?”
“Eleanor Brown’s? I remember. I remember you not wanting to go. I remember driving all the way back along the highway, to pick up the clothes you took off.” A reluctant smile moved across her face. “How you got them out of the back of the truck without us noticing, I never knew.”
“One at a time,” he told her. “I leaned way over, so they wouldn’t blow up into view in the mirror.”
“And I remember how you looked when we came around to get you out and you were just . . .”
Bullet waited.
“. . . bare naked, and laughing . . .” She laughed then, and he joined in.
“Anyway,” he said, “I owe you an apology. And Liza, too, because she was looking forward to that party, but she’s not around to hear it. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Oh, I dunno,” his mother said. “It always seemed to me there wasn’t anything else you could have done. Being you.”
Speaking of the end of Runner (you did say to keep the links coming!), this jumped out at me, reading it shortly after Come a Stranger. Bullet talking to Tamer:
“If you’ll give me your word to stay out of Vietnam. Don’t tell me”— He cut off Tamer’s protests—“ because you can, you know it. Have another kid. Stay in school. Be a teacher. Get religion, whatever it takes. That one’s not your war.”
"Get religion." And then the next time we see Tamer, he's Reverend Shipp. Foreshadowing, at the very least, if not Bullet outright influencing the course of Tamer's life.