Sea Oak Review

Deanna Thabatah
April 11,2016

As I started reading this short story, I was really confused. Joysticks? Shirts coming off? Thomas's tush? Then it dawned on me that Saunders has decided to start off his story in a strip club. I have to say that is a first for me. If he was with me right now, I'd give him a clap on the back for originality.

I do have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying the dialogue style between the characters and the dialogue that speaker has with himself internally. He does a very good job, providing characterization for all of his characters in such a limited time/space. Saunders addresses the dynamics of the strip club at first,which I found really entertaining, and gives us a look at their scaling system. I particularly felt pity for Lloyd, who now is a "stinker".

When I first started reading, I wondered what brought the speaker to the club in the first place.
The story was very odd and humorous at times but inevitably brought up the reality that life isn't always perfect. We were introduced to Min and Jade who unfortunately are ignorant, rude, and frustrated with the positions they are stuck in. Their family seems really broken. Aunt Bernie's living a poor quality life, the grandparents died (And grandpa left all his money to a girl no one in the family knew), Min and Jade are unsuccessfully studying for their GEDs our narrator is a stripper, etc.

Aunt Bernie's death really threw me off. It was very sudden and not enough backstory/ foreshadowing was given. I feel as though this story has a lot of potential and a lot of writing left. Saunders could have taken this plot further, but I understand the limitations of a short story. However, I had a lot of questions that were still left unanswered by the end of the story that made me really confused. Whether or not Saunders meant his readers to be confused is unknown but in my opinion he could've elaborated some more.

This story has the potential to be a movie.