Lets Talk About Feelings

Ashley

Professor Rau

Eng 101-MD

            On the second floor of the library, on the right side, all the way in the back was where I went to listen to Dan Josefson read passages from his novel That’s Not a Feeling. The book was about a teen getting left at a troubled teen’s boarding school. Josefson doesn't explain why he was there leaving me to wonder why the teen got sent there in the first place.  Overall the the reading was worthwhile.

            The audience was attentive and looking directly at the Jofeson. This must have made him a bit nervous, because he began in a low tone and a shaky voice. That surprised me because we were mainly a group of young college students there for our class. Josefson first talking about himself and what the book was generally about.  After he finished, he started to read the three passages that he chosen for us.

            The first passage that Josefson read was about the main character, Benjamin. Benjamin was going on a tour of a boarding school that he and his parents were looking into. He finds out that he wasn't on a tour at all and that his parents had enrolled him into the school abandoning him there while on his tour.

The story then follows Benjamin and his time at the school.  He moves onto the next passage, which he describes to be the “worst English class possible,” The students are there with a sub and the passage explains how the class becomes unruly. Lastly, Josefson reads us a monologue. Here the Head master is speaking to the students at their “Cartoon brunch”. Whatever he had fallen ill with has caused him to be confused and angry at the students. Each passage shows how the school was beginning to unravel and how chaos was starting to instill. The organization of the school wasn't the best, but as the headmaster got sick, the students of the school began to be more unruly.

            The vocabulary and the style of his reading intrigued me, during the readings I noticed the way he was speaking. When he finished the readings I asked him about his style of writing. He explained that consistency was key during his writing. He used medium length sentences and paragraphs to get his point across. He also tried not to use too many extremes in his writing in order to make the book understandable.

            I found this reading to be extremely interesting. Having dealt with a sister who always got in trouble and skipped school, I found myself relating to the book a little. I liked the sarcastic tone that popped up and I enjoyed the characters that were mentioned in the passages. I think that this book would be great for young adults however, with the vocabulary that was used, this book was definitely meant be for adults.  The reading was worthwhile and I would suggest people go see him speak and even buy the book!

Work Cited:

Josefon, Dan. “That’s Not a feeling.” Nassau Community College, Library, Garden City NY. 29 October 2014.