David’s Bill Raymond, My Father

David’s story took me a while to take in because it is written in the first person, but the narrator does not really become the focus of the story until the last few pages. For the first page or two, I was really confused by the story because I was not sure why we were so interested in the father and not in Howard (whose name we don’t learn until close to the end). It bothered me for the first few pages because it was not clear whether it was ever going to come back to Howard or if it was going to stay a faux-third person omniscient.
But then, once the dowsing comes into play, it starts to sound like some kind of miracle maker tall tale kind of thing. The way Howard tells the story of his father really makes him sound like a larger-than-life man as he recounts the way he thought of his father, or perhaps still thinks about him.
Another thing about David’s story that blows me away is the intricacies of the dowsing. David really thought the plot to this story out thoroughly. It was also executed extremely well. I could see the children running around trying pick out rocks and Bill sitting there separating them into different groups and the children getting so excited when their rock was complimented or something. I can see the whole ceremony, which is amazing because it is so complex. David has succeeded with this story beautifully.