Reflection on Oral History

Oral History was in a format that I have never really seen before. At times it was confusing who was talking and what relationship that they had with the rest of the characters, but I thought that it was interesting. This book was also confusing because of the same reason that Feud was confusing. There were a lot of unusual names in this book and some of the people had the same last names. I think that all these strange names made it really difficult to follow, but the stories were interesting.
I liked how the book started off with Jennifer at Little Luther Wade and Ora Mae’s house taking an oral history about her family. We read her impressions of the family and we learn of her actions through a third person narrator. The beginning to this story reminds me of a movie, when we see an introduction to the story, and then after a couple minutes it fades to black. After coming from black the filmmaker puts a subtitle on the bottom that says something like “20 years earlier”. This is a creative way to write a book, and it makes a good way to describe the events of the story.
Author Lee Smith brings the whole story to a close when we learn what happens to Jennifer after listening to the oral history. The reader learns the Jennifer was welcome to stay at the house in Hoot Owl Holler, but everyone in the family, except for Little Luther, does not like the tape recorder that she brings. It was surprising when Almarine kisses Jennifer right before she leaves. “…her uncle Al grabs her right up off her feet and kisses her so hard that stars smash in front of her eyes. Al sticks his tongue inside her mouth” (284). I have not figured out the purpose of Al’s action but it has caused Jennifer to change her opinion of her mother’s family. “Some things may seem modern, like the van, but they’re not, not really. They are really very primitive people, resembling nothing so much as some sort of early tribe” (284). I think this is a pretty harsh assessment on Jennifer’s part. Just because there is not a lot of wealth in Hoot Owl Holler to modernize the area does not mean that they are primitive. However, I must agree that it was definitely primitive of Al to kiss Jennifer so roughly. She goes back to school and gets an A on her project, and in an unusual move, marries her teacher. In the end I like how Smith describes what happened to each person.

I thought that this story was out of the ordinary, but it was interesting. I like how Smith starts in the present, then flashes back to the past for the majority of the novel, and then at the end she wraps up the story in the present again. I liked the book and I would recommend it for future sections of this class.