Brandy: Giri, one of the first things you note in your lovely introductory essay yesterday about this book is Portis’s absolute control and precision. This was my third time reading it, and I am always struck by how this book can be so full of little details, so bursting with asides and minor characters and theories and surprising phrases, but still feel restrained.
Kelsey: This was my first time reading this book, and I looked at how thick it is and thought I would read it really quickly. But I found myself reading a little bit of it every day instead of gulping it down. I think that’s because of the precision. Even the tiniest details (the orange pills, the professor’s lecture on tape, the silver, etc.) come back at some point, and that is so satisfying as a reader.
