Rattle Bone

A detailed Summary of Rattle Bone

"A novel or a collection of short stories?" may be a question that a critic asks about Rattlebone. Maxine Clair portrays both arguments with her energetic writing style. A blend of random comments and many unique phrases intermix with the intense plot. Writing like this gives the reader a more relaxed state and the book seems more alive and real. In answer to the critique question, Maxine Clair is writing a novel because of an abundant supply of foreshadowing, a collection of narrators, a recurrence of characters, and a process commonly known to man as aging.

Suggesting that Rattlebone is in fact a novel, foreshadowing occurred in several places during the book. Clair uses this writing method by mentioning the name October Brown, partly because Brown is involved at the beginning and towards the end of the book. Ms. Brown became an important part of Irene's life, not only by being one of the main reasons for her parents' divorce, but also by helping Irene accomplish one of her goals. The time that occurred between these two events in the book connects Rattlebone and is a very good use of foreshadowing. Another example of Clair's use of this writing method is the experience of the divorce between I

As all of these collections are compiled, one story stands tall. The life of the citizens of Rattlebone as a whole became eminent. The foreshadowing is apart of any novel, and does not escape from Clair's writing. It enables the novel to be one story, not a collection of several stories. Sure, there is definitely a collection of short stories in Rattlebone, but they all connect together like a jigsaw puzzle to be completed. Without all of the pieces, this novel would not be complete. The change in narration is a unique quality to Maxine Clair's work. This writing method gives a different perspective than just Irene's account. Recurring characters play a strong part in Rattlebone being a novel as well. If different characters are in use in every chapter, than there is not a strong enough link between all of them and they do not fit into the puzzle. Since the characters appear in more than one chapter, the chapters fit together nicely. Finally, Rattlebone is a novel because of how the characters aged throughout the novel. If the characters do not age throughout a book, then it is safe to assume that the book is a compilation of short stories. But this is not the case in Rattlebone. The characters do experience age, experience change, and experience life together. Maxine Clair wrote this novel, Rattlebone to let a reader enjoy the life of this small town without knowing the future. She reveals just a piece of it at a time, and until that last piece makes it into the puzzle, no one can decipher it. Rattlebone is definitely a novel, exhibiting all the qualities, not of a compilation of short stories, but of a novel.

Having different characters narrate is uncommon in a novel, but by having the characters reoccur in a book is not. Th

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Approximate Word count = 1184
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels