Date of Award

Spring 2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

English

Program/Concentration

Creative Writing

Committee Director

Sheri Reynolds

Committee Member

Janet Peery

Committee Member

Philip Raisor

Call Number for Print

Special Collections; LD4331.E64 K68 2006

Abstract

This novel explores mourning and responsibility versus the desire for family and intimacy. The story is told from the first-person viewpoint of Winnie Mackey, an adolescent boy who loses his father to complications from diabetes, and who experiments with love in Jerome County, Kentucky.

Winnie's anger and depression following his father's death are complicated by his budding relationship with Faye Linnet, his best friend's twin sister. This situation, especially as it is told from a young narrator's perspective, illustrates how adolescents deal with adult emotions. When life experiences yield inadequate coping mechanisms, these young people embody their pain and pleasure. In this scenario, the line between the pain and pleasure may blur.

Though I've created a fictional setting in Jerome County for this novel, elements of several Kentucky counties, primarily Woodford, Fayette, and Anderson, inform the story's locale. Details of the horsemanship and baseball were researched for authenticity. Though inspired by people I grew up with, the characters in this novel are fictional Just as I've taken liberties with the setting, these characters are also in service to the story.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/6x20-7503

Download

Included in

Fiction Commons

Share

COinS