| Notes on "Reminiscences" Ever since writing "Atonement" and its exploration of a character's mental thoughts, I've been fascinated by the idea of a story with more of a pure stream-of-consciousness approach. The challenges of writing a story like that are many (especially for someone like me who thinks in more logical and structured terms). However, by removing any sense of a "narrator" and having the characters speak in a fluid style with no punctuation, it seemed possible to create the illusion of direct consciousness style. The idea of the narration being the thoughts of disembodied spirits I've taken from Mexican author Juan Rulfo's 1956 novel Pedro Paramo, a work perhaps familiar to many a mid-level Spanish Lit student. Of the stories to date, this is the most challenging for the reader, and it is my personal favorite. It might be the type of story that warrants a second reading, because many details in the main narrative become more meaningful after the reader understands the premise. NCM Jan. '01
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