Author:
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Anne Hull
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Source:
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Washington Post
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Date:
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09/26/2004
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Format:
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Serial
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This exceptionally insightful, well-written series about gay youth in America was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize.
There's real passion to the writing in this series; the passion lies within Hull's authoritative and detached voice. It comes through in the strong, intimate writing. We found moments of near-poetry: "The songs today are about Glocks and bitches, but Felicia clings to Patti LaBelle. Her eyelashes curl like a fawn's. She has milk-chocolate skin as smooth as blown glass. A cubic zirconium glints from her left earlobe. Felicia can strut with the best of them, talking about what girl she 'souped' or 'smashed,' Timbs unlaced and 'yo, yo, yo,' but her ankle socks say 'Hug Me.' "
Here's what we notice in that passage: the clean, tight sentences; the colorful, telling and precise detail (Hull found out exactly what is in which earlobe); the original metaphors. We admire the way that Hull embeds slang within the piece rather than translating it; the approach makes for a smoother read; it also asks readers to move toward Felicia's world.
Like all good narrative writers, Hull can make us feel for her characters. But unlike some narrative, she asks us to experience that empathy across difference -- real, material difference -- and to experience social and political issues at the level of felt life. She doesn't, as we find much newspaper narrative does, write with the implicit premise that we're all the same: one big like-minded civic society. That's narrative that really matters.
Click the button to the left for the first installment. For the rest of the four installments, scroll down on the Post site to the index in the right column. The paper also published a fascinating follow-up piece by Hull -- you'll find a link to it under Related Links to the right.
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© 2008 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College