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A Second-Hand Experience

From all of Moore's stories so far, the one that stuck out for me was the concise yet detailed story "The Kid's Guide to Divorce". I found the tone and use of second-person perspective in this story made it feel more personal than in the others. It felt like less of a structured story and more of a series of thoughts and observations the child is narrating to themselves in real time. We're given a direct insight into how they feel and think throughout their interactions with their mother, and all in a way that is supposed to make us feel involved in their story. A random thought I had was that this story could be treated like one of those stories narrated to you while your eyes are closed so you can envision it yourself, since you can put some variation of "Now imagine that..." in front of nearly every sentence in the story. It just has that sort of vibe, like it's supposed to be seen and experienced through your own eyes and not through those of the character itself. The hidden tension, exasperation, and love the character feels aren't always explicitly mentioned, but when you put yourself into their shoes, your own emotions can fill in the gaps. I couldn't help but imagine that the protagonist was narrating their own thoughts back to us in order to give us the exact same experience they felt, inviting us to join them in this situation. It allows us as readers to paint the picture in our own ways, feeling different emotions at different times while experiencing the same circumstances as we are walked through the character's thoughts.

Moore's other stories also provide this sort of experience, such as in "How" where it describes the struggles the protagonist faces in breaking up with her boyfriend. It's initial looseness with descriptions encourages the reader to put themselves into the story and imagine the scenario, and while not everyone can identify with the narrator's emotions or decisions, it at least provides the chance to experience a different point of view. "How to Be an Other Woman" also tries to make the reader envision its story rather than simply read it through its flow. Its depiction of the struggles of being a mistress are something many haven't experienced, but the way it is written once again allows us to step into her shoes for a moment and experience her ordeal. Despite none of Moore's stories describing situations we would actually want to experience, they give us a chance to look into the lives of those who have, in an attempt to help us understand just how many things we don't know.

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