We Didn't

"We Didn't" by Stuart Dybek. The story is a love story about two kids who don't do it, and it leaves me feeling (perhaps appropriately) unsatisfied. The writing itself is brilliant, full of powerful language and haunting imagery. Every sentence inspired a different visual, and the pictures are incredibly vivid. My favorite bit of imagery would probably be, "The lake had turned hot pink, rose rapture, pearl amethyst with dusk".

Another aspect of the writing that I greatly appreciated was the way the author utilized all of the five senses in creating this story. Examples of this are "kisses tasting of different shades of lip gloss" "your slick scent mixed with the coconut musk of the suntan lotion" "gasped sharply as a cry of pain" and so on and so forth.

The tension between the main character and his girlfriend Gin is palpable. After they witness the discovery of that woman and her unborn child things are never the same between them, something the main character notes bitterly. They argue constantly. It's as if the dead woman changed everything, as if she is still with them where ever they go. I thought this was a very realistic portrayal of how a traumatic event may effect two similar people very differently.

Overall, I loved how the story was written, even if I didn't enjoy the plot of the story.