Reading Response Week 1

I am responding to David Madden’s Abducted by Circumstance. 

When I first started reading this book, I was frustrated by the fact that he did not really transition from subject of conversation to another. It would get confusing who was talking. He has a very distinct style that makes the reader pay attention in order to actually grasp what he’s writing. However, once you delved more into the book, you developed a rhythm and it was easier to follow his writing style. I love how he shows instead of tells. He is putting the reader into the Carol’s world. He does it so well at describing Carol’s idea of Glenda’s experience that I sometimes forget that we actually don’t know anything about Glenda other than she was taken by a guy who has taken other women before. This is all Carol’s interpretation of how Glenda is experiencing her kidnapping. That is why Madden does not use a lot of dialogue. He doesn’t need to rely on quotation marks and statements when making the scene. He has the freedom to write Glenda’s experience through Carol’s eyes. In doing so, he is revealing more and more about Carol because she always ties Glenda into the description of her own life. That is one of the brilliant things Madden has done as a writer.