Week 8
Class Ground Rules
Read all the assignments before class.
Keep yourself on mute unless called on.
Raise your hands electronically.
Focus your comments only on the question at hand rather than straying to other parts of the story.
Refrain from offering a review of the whole story or jumping to the end.
Try to support your comments by referring to details from the text.
Listen to and respond to others with respect.
READ (at least twice): Edith Pearlman – “Vallies,” (from Binocular Vision, pp. 343-353).
A woman leaves office work to become a nanny.
Think About:
Val and the impression we get of her in the first interview.
What are Val's feelings and relationships like with the different families that employ her?
The stories ("Vallies") that Val tells the children.
The final story Val tells the Duprey family.
How has Val changed since living with the Dupreys?
More to Think About: Summing Up Edith Pearlman
Based on the four stories we've read and discussed:
What do you see as the strengths of Pearlman's writing?
What do you see as the weaknesses?
Would you recommend Pearlman to others?
Other Recommended Stories in Binocular Vision
Fidelity
If Love Were All*
Purim Night*
The Coat*
Binocular Vision
Self Reliance
*These three stories are related.