As I write my reader response on Grace Paley's story "Distance" the only weak point I found was the dialect, making it was hard to read. The short story begins awkwardly confusing, and ends abruptly. Other than that, I found the story to be creative. I put down the book having known a funny, tough and timeless character.
            
             I felt the characters were true to form and consistent. Unfolding and getting to know Dolly was a bit of a challenge. The openness of her younger days, that devil-may-care attitude, really is not my cup of tea, but she is someone I may drop in to see for an entertaining visit.
            
             Oh... how she delights in telling about the simplest of people and happenings in her life. The dialogue gave me a sense of a simple-minded character in action; the best description I could give would be 'Granny.' She reminded me of Granny on that show "The Beverly Hillbillies." Granny was also bossy and had that southern dialect in her speech. She too enjoyed simple pleasures and her slanted outlook on life. Maybe if the show "Beverly Hillbillies" was not a syndicated family show Granny would have used the same profanity for her expressions, for example, when the narrator tells us that the husband to Ginnie ran off with a girl that "shaves between her legs." I do not believe that Granny would be allowed to make such a statement on national television.
            
             I found the "Beverly Hillbillies" to be frustrating to watch at times. So this does not surprise me that this story would have the same frustrating effect... but it is worth stumbling through. The metaphors that Grace Paley uses gave me an instant mental picture of what Dolly tried to express about a situation, or action. Though at times the story is crude and racist, it gave the story a more in-depth look into the characters of Dolly, Jack, John, Ginnie and the rest. Just as the "Beverly Hillbillies" a...