madtinker
2015-06-05, 11:34 PM
My wife and I read "Closing Time" today. On the surface it seemed to be fairly simple. Until...
We realized we didn't know who the storyteller was. Or where the boys went. After much discussion and re-reading, we think we have part of the answer, but not all of it.
We know two things about him. He would be almost the age of the old man. He is a boy. Of the men in the room, we are told about Martyn, Paul, the old man, and the narrator. The storyteller is not Martyn of Paul - they disparage the story. It is not the narrator, for he professes to be a young man. It is not the old man, for he seems to be one of the other boys in the story. We are told there are only four men in the club. It seems we have an impossible storyteller.
However! At the conclusion of the tale we are told by the proprietress that the club itself is haunted. My wife and I concluded that the storyteller must have been the ghost who haunts the club.
So, thoughts on what happened to the boys after they went in the playhouse? It seems that they later grew up and at least one of them is (probably) alive. Does our explanation of the storyteller's identity stack up? Other thoughts?
We realized we didn't know who the storyteller was. Or where the boys went. After much discussion and re-reading, we think we have part of the answer, but not all of it.
We know two things about him. He would be almost the age of the old man. He is a boy. Of the men in the room, we are told about Martyn, Paul, the old man, and the narrator. The storyteller is not Martyn of Paul - they disparage the story. It is not the narrator, for he professes to be a young man. It is not the old man, for he seems to be one of the other boys in the story. We are told there are only four men in the club. It seems we have an impossible storyteller.
However! At the conclusion of the tale we are told by the proprietress that the club itself is haunted. My wife and I concluded that the storyteller must have been the ghost who haunts the club.
So, thoughts on what happened to the boys after they went in the playhouse? It seems that they later grew up and at least one of them is (probably) alive. Does our explanation of the storyteller's identity stack up? Other thoughts?