I did some background reading on William Kennedy. He was born in Albany NY. His books were fiction but many of them took place in Albany. He had an "Albany cycle" where he wrote many books about a fictional family line in Albany NY.
This was my favorite essay from the packet because it was the most down to earth. I was able to relate to it the most. Also, it was funny. I liked how confident he was about "eggs" and how he never gave up. I lot of people would have thrown it away if their parents told them it was stupid, but he didn't. He sent it in to colliers anyways (probably less just to get it accepted, but more to get the letter of acceptance, and rub it in his fathers face). Nobody can be successful without an attitude like that.
I know what Kennedy is talking about when he rereads "Eggs" and realizes how horrible it actually was. We keep boxes with our old work from elementary school, and I went through it to try and organize it one day. I read some of my old stories and I realized how bad they were. This would make sense because I am still going through school and improving on my writing skills. Of course something that I wrote in elementary school would sound bad. What about professional writers though? What do they think when they look back on a book that they wrote ten years ago? Is J.K. Rowling still happy with the first harry potter book or does she look at it and see changes she would want to make if she were publishing it today? I suppose it depends on the author.
I also liked what Kennedy said about how fiction cannot be good without an element of mystery. That tends to be what I look for in a good fiction book. I read the back of the book, and if there aren't any unknowns, why bother reading it?
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