Bill VanPatten
Autor de Destinos : an introduction to Spanish
Sobre El Autor
Dr Alessandro G Benati is Principal Lecturer in SLA and Head of the Department of Languages and International Studies at the University of Greenwich, UK. Professor Bill VanPatten is Interim Head at the Department of Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese at the University of Illinois at Chicago, mostrar más USA mostrar menos
Series
Obras de Bill VanPatten
Workbook/Study Guide I (Lessons 1-26) to accompany Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish (1992) 67 copias
Theories in Second Language Acquisition: An Introduction (Second Language Acquisition Research Series) (2006) 29 copias
Student Viewer's Handbook (Original) to accompany Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish (1992) 10 copias
Input Processing and Grammar Instruction in Second Language Acquisition (Second Language Learning) (1996) 6 copias
Research Methods in Second Language Psycholinguistics (Second Language Acquisition Research Series) (2013) 6 copias
Processing Instruction: Theory, Research, and Commentary (Second Language Acquisition Research Series) (2003) 3 copias
Student Viewer's Handbook to Accompany Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish : Episodios 27-52 (1997) 3 copias
Sometimes You Just Know 2 copias
Lights, Camera, Spanish (Book DVD): Learn Conversational Spanish by Watching a Romantic Adventure (2006) 2 copias
Form-Meaning Connections in Second Language Acquisition (Second Language Acquistion Research Theoretical and… (2004) 2 copias
Elena (Spanish Edition) 1 copia
While We're on the Topic 1 copia
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Género
- male
- País (para mapa)
- USA
- Lugares de residencia
- Chowchilla, California, USA
Miembros
Reseñas
Premios
También Puede Gustarte
Autores relacionados
Estadísticas
- Obras
- 69
- Miembros
- 533
- Popularidad
- #46,708
- Valoración
- 3.0
- Reseñas
- 3
- ISBNs
- 152
- Idiomas
- 2
I know from reading the author's bio that he's telling us a story rooted in his own gay-male experience. This comes through in many facets of Arnie's story, and none more clearly than the opening scene where Arnie is raked over the coals by his supervisor, Rachel, not for the first or even tenth time, in the cruelest and most belittling way. This sets the tone for the read: Arnie in an awful and humiliating position, painfully unable to defend or extract himself from it.
As the narration is all third-person limited, we're privy to all the ways the action mirrors his past abuse. It can feel a bit repetitive, but it definitely sets the stakes. This is a man with a huge hill to climb just to get up to "bad." When glimmerings of good things come to him, if he even recognizes them, he's immediately on the alert for the fuckening. This being a romantic story, we know this is what we're here to watch him triumph over.
And do that he does...he's handed a dinner invitation by his boss hot on the heels of his very public humiliation by Rachel, and of course is all set for it to turn into a fiasco...especially when he meets the boss's handsome, sparkling dominant nephew. Who is all of eighteen. And beautiful.
And interested in thirty-year-old Arnie.
That CAN'T be right.
What follows is the journey to self-acceptance and to learning about accepting acceptance. Arnie is, at long last, among people who want to be with him. That's an intoxicating feeling to someone not accustomed to it. Arnie blossoms into a happy, still-nebbishy middle-aged guy. I'd've been a lot less kind if he'd suddenly changed completely, but he's a better-adjusted version of himself at the end of the book—not someone suddenly tured into a confident, self-motivated dudebro.
I liked this read just fine, and appreciated its positive resolution that stayed within realistic outcomes. A lot of guys could identify with nebbishy Arnie Violet. His trajectory, while pat (as expected in this genre), is never incredible. It's a warm comforting thing to see this ordinary no one much get to live out his happy dream.
No matter how banal the dream may be.… (más)