Two or Three Things I Know For Sure 1

The latest book we are reading in class, Two or Three Things I Know For Sure, caught my attention really quickly.  It's probably one of my favorite books we have read in this class so far.  Dorothy Allison jumps in immediately and it catches my attention nicely.  One of the first things DA said that caught my attention was the mention of her big family.  Immediately it made me think of my own family, my mother is one of 9 and my father is one of 14 so I plenty of aunts, uncles, and cousins.  The story about the family tree also brought back another friendly memory.  I can remember a few times where I was given this assignment in class and I had to make a condensed version of my family.  Unlike DA's mother, my mom always welcomed this project.  I'm still not sure why her family was so opposed to helping Dorothy fill out her family tree, but I guess I'm happy my family always helped me fill out mine.  "All through the funeral rituals, we acted as if we had become careful strangers." DA's story about her mother passing away ended up being sort of a tear jerker for me.  While I have luckily not had the misfortune of having a parent pass away, I have had plenty of relatives pass away and I can relate to taking myself as out of the moment as possible and pretending I was somewhere or someone else. As I got further into the story I still couldn't really find a reason why DA's mother keeps so much hidden, or is so reluctant to share information with Dorothy.  I'm not sure if it's a lack of trust, or a fear of sharing. I don't know and it's kind of bugging me.  Perhaps it's because I can relate to looking at photos and asking tons of questions and wanting to learn more, and being told stories upon stories of the people in the photos.