Getting in the last word

   It's all over but the shoutin'. Yes, the library's Gwinnett Reads program was a great success. Over 1,000 readers picnicked and partied with Rick Bragg. And a chosen few wrote winning essays, for which the grand prize was dinner with the author. And now comes the shoutin' part. I get to shout about some of the best essays and- even more gratifying-get in the last word. (If you don't know how much I love getting in the last word, just ask my husband.)
   Contestants explained in 150 word essays why they thought Bragg's book was important. 
   Elizabeth Taylor of Lawrenceville related personally with, "It could have been anybody's story, but it was his. And in its telling, he told ours-the story of those who grew up in the foothills of Appalachia, the poor, the misfits, the unwanted, the ignored."
   Alice Bengal of Norcross identified in a similar way saying, "The story Rick Bragg tells is so universal. As Rick joked at the Gwinnett Reads kickoff picnic, people regularly tell him that he's stolen their stories. We see ourselves in his stories. For me, reading 'Shoutin'' was like going to a family reunion and hearing about a branch of the family I just hadn't met personally."
   Lawrenceville's David Patton expressed himself through metaphor. "We search for threads of meaning woven throughout cause and effect. Prolonged suffering increases our desperation to pick at the stitching that binds us to time and place-and people. Exposing crucial threads without marring the fabric takes delicate skill…But Rick unravels a tale of sorrow and triumph with dignity and grace."
   On the other hand, N.C. Craddock of Bethlehem gave a detailed description of real life: "I'm reminded of the sleepy community where I grew up. My mind skips across my mother's freshly scrubbed linoleum floor. With the slam of a screen door, I duck under clotheslines, skirt rose bushes and head up a well-trodden path…determined to be first in line when I finally spy the old Bookmobile coming up the hill."
   Paradox is the point of the essay written by Dawn Richerson of Lawrenceville. "The inherent importance of Rick Bragg's story lies in the author's refusal to belabor its importance. Entering ordinary scenes, the reader often emerges with an extraordinary emotional connection to three-dimensional characters."
   Bragg's story was about ordinary people. But more than that, it was a tribute to an extraordinary woman, his mother who gave selflessly to her children. In this spirit, Joyce Bone of Norcross exemplified giving back to one's mother. "Rick Bragg should choose my mother, Eileen Grimes to have dinner with….a woman who like Mr. Bragg's mother gave everything to her children and took nothing for herself."
   Through Bone's winning words, her mother was the one who was able to shout about dining with Rick Bragg. To me, that's the last word in what good writing is all about.

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