There are unexpectedly poignant moments in these brief interviews which are somehow simultaneously casual and intimate. Because of the collage treatment, you don't really get to know any individual characters--either the speakers or their fathers--in a coherent way, but instead, you receive an oddly affecting composite portrait of fathers, or, more precisely, the EFFECT of fathers. The ending is a bit truncated, leaving you with a mid-stream feeling. For that reason, I'd recommend using this in a larger context, as an element in a larger consideration of fathers. If anything, this piece should be longer, more developed, which might give it more cumulative impact
Review of Dads
Jay Allison
Posted on June 13, 2004 at 03:10 PM
There are unexpectedly poignant moments in these brief interviews which are somehow simultaneously casual and intimate. Because of the collage treatment, you don't really get to know any individual characters--either the speakers or their fathers--in a coherent way, but instead, you receive an oddly affecting composite portrait of fathers, or, more precisely, the EFFECT of fathers. The ending is a bit truncated, leaving you with a mid-stream feeling. For that reason, I'd recommend using this in a larger context, as an element in a larger consideration of fathers. If anything, this piece should be longer, more developed, which might give it more cumulative impact