Robert E. Lee’s “A Different Place”
is a story about a man and his family following a car accident in which the
family was involved. The narrator was not in the wreck, but learns of it from
his family members who were in it. The accident killed a friend, Derick, and
could have killed the rest of the family as well. Back in the United States,
the survivors go to the hospital, where it is found that the father has a
broken vertebra and requires surgery.
The thing that works the best in
this story is the dialogue. It is well written and natural. None of it feels
stilted or shoehorned in by the author to make a point. Instead, the dialogue
serves to move the story forward. There is also a good mix of direct dialogue
and indirect dialogue. I especially like the indirect dialogue because it gave
the audience a bit of insight on how the narrator responded to it when he was
told it.
My main suggestion for this story
is to have more of a character arc. As of right now, I’m not really sure how
the narrator changed, if at all. It just kind of seems that he took this
accident in stride and then went back to daily life. I want to see Derick’s
death and his dad’s injuries affect him more. Maybe it might work better if he
too was in the accident. That might lead him to thinking about mortality and
risks.
Also, after reading, I want to know
why the narrator is so calm about the whole situation. He says himself that he
realizes that the entire family could have died in the accident, not just
Derick. However, the narrator doesn’t ever demonstrate any real emotional
intensity. He seems very detached from situation. Personally, I don’t think it’s
the best narrative choice because it obvious that the narrator cares about his
family. Because of that connection, I think he would be more likely to have
intense emotional responses to the situation. But he doesn’t, which leads me to
wonder if the narrator is callous or if maybe he doesn’t completely understand
the gravity of the situation.
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