Are These Actual Miles?

I didn't care for this story. I felt like it was a little anticlimatic. Also, the dialogue was bad. That's not how people talk, a lot of times there was something said which didn't make any sense, or there was some sort of feined depth. In fact I thought the whole thing was feined. Those moments when you're supposed to draw something out of a confrontation that isn't directly on the page, there isn't much to draw. didn't like it.

Are These Actual Miles

I liked how this story was a deeply personal look inside someone's shitty life. Leo is facing bankruptcy, and just selling his car so the court won't take it, and this involves his lady whoring herself out. The narration felt voyeuristic, and I felt like I shouldn't be inside Leo's space or head. I sympathized with him, how the guilt of his infidelity and the intense panic of his wife's one night stand, combined with his financial problems, almost makes him crack. However, despite my empathy towards the characters, I think they got what they deserved; they sounded like irresponsible and greedy morons who lack the self control to keep their shit together.

Never Marry a Mexican

Wow! "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
Her style has an interesting, kind of punchy, sentence structure. It's as if she just wants to get to the point of the sentence and doesn't have time to be bothered with verbs or adjectives which may be unnecessary to make a specific point. However, this does not seem to be due to any shortcomings on her part (as is too often the case with very stylized writers... or very stylized anything for that matter*). There are portions of this story which are beautifully written in which the author brandishes language quite decoratively to describe this or that scene, though I think that she prefers to use concise descriptors for much of the body of her work. Such as in her description of her father on his deathbed and what that was like and how it looked physically, as well as emotionally, to her; that was concise. But the ending was definitely much more poetic, what a beautiful way to use the English language!
I don't want to be over-analytical here, but if this is a purely fictional piece, than I think that the author put a lot of thought into every word in this piece. Which is funny considering that it comes across as very disjointed and funny because the tone rings slightly of a "prose-oem" (that's prose and poem stuck together... Yeah, I just did that, pretty smooth right?) rather than straight-no-chaser prose. I say this because, you can draw a lot of parallels between her life/relationship and her childhood (i.e. her father dying while her mother cheats on him v.s. her and her lover sleeping together while the wife of her lover gives birth to their child). This tells a lot about the character's possible motives in regards to sex/romance and leaves a good sized well in her character from which to draw your own conclusions. For example, I would say that the young woman, in some strange way, mirrors her mother's morality as she dredges through what seems to be an existential dilemma about revenge. And, I would say that the narrator is actually very like her mother. But you might draw an entirely different conclusion than I did and be correct. If this is pure fiction, than that is a well thought out character, and that is a much more complex relationship than it seems on the surface.
I liked that I couldn't decide whether the main character is deeply self-involved or incredibly out of touch with herself, whether she actually believes herself to be empowered by all of this or whether she fully realizes the effect that this affair is having on her self-esteem. I thought that this was very true to life, it's not cut and dry and in fact, there's a level of polarity in her personality which probably would arise from this ordeal. She can't figure out if she's broken, trodden on, and worthless or if she is the strong hand which wields the blade. She is all wrapped up in this revenge which involves sleeping with the son of the man who broke her heart when she was young, in order to (I guess) break the son's heart as well as expose the whole affair to him, but at the same time she kind of places herself in a position to once again be victimized, and for what? To completely loose what little self respect she has left? The point that I'm making is that there is a lot to chew on. That it was very well thought out, but presented in such a way that you are lead to believe that you are reading the ranting of a woman who is going mad, meaning, it seems as though it's not well thought out, which I think was the intention because that was the mood which the author wanted.

*Note: I am not saying that style is not important or that some of the best books that I have ever read did not have very specific styles (Salinger for example) I'm only saying that it can be a crutch, and it often is.

Are These Actual Miles?

Are These Actual Miles? was interesting to me. The language he used was very vivid. I liked how he explained in detail what Toni was wearing and how she looking in the mirror to make sure she looked OK . That part seemed realistic to me. I liked the characterization of Toni and Leo I think the author did a good job illustrating what kind of people they were. I also liked how the author showed the relationship of Toni and Leo. I reread this story though because I wasn't always aware of what happened for the character to say that or react that way. Were some parts of the story hard to understand for you guys as well?

"Are these actual miles?"

... The title is so vague and ambiguous. I actually liked this story. It reminded me of "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe. Leo seemed very paranoid once we learned of his infidelity, and it seemed to very much get the better of him by the end of the story. I feel that the lesson at hand was well-deserved, however I'm still convinced that Toni might've known of Leo cheating on her and had a fling of her own after the sale was done. I feel that the story was sharply written and it keeps you guessing along with the protagonist. I really liked it a lot, and I wonder what was everyone else's take on the story.

Are These Actual Miles

I like this story. It was a little hard to read but after rereading it and completely understanding it, i enjoyed it a little more. This story was based upon selling a car so that when they go to court on Monday, no one can take any of their things. The manin character, Leo, was intriguing becaue he was a very paranoid person. This descriptions about the way he was acting and the way he was talking to his wife show that he is a jealous person and can be very controlling. But he also has a lot of trust in his wife to do the right thing in selling the car and making money for their family. I got nervous when the man who bought the convertible showed up, I thought Leo was going to start a fight with him becaue he was slightly drunk when went out there to confront him. But all he did was say, Monday, knowing that that day was more important than getting his car back from this person. When the question was asked "Are these actual miles?" he is reffering to how low the milage is on the car ... this makes it seem like these people really cared for their car and treated it as if it were their child. They bought it brand new and really appreciated its value in their life. I think Leo was really sad to have to sell it because he really cared for it, but he knew it was the best decision at that point in their life.

Never Marry a Mexican

Never Marry a Mexican was a story that Expressed a lot of emotion. It mostly expressed the anger the main character had from being the other woman. The main character seemed to be ruthless and have little morals. She would constantly brag about being intimate with the woman's husband. The life she chose to lead Seemed to have corrupted her which also made her sad and angry. The author wrote the story as if the woman was crazy And was releasing all the frustrations that she had bottled up inside. The story also seemed surreal. She said that she was doing something but it didn't seem like it actually happened, for instance She talked about how she was sleeping with their son but it didn't seem like she actually did it it. It seemed like she wanted to do it.Do you believe she really took advantage of the son?