The Friendly City Reading Series presentation provided audience members with the opportunity to engage in an adult read aloud – an activity I have not experienced in quite some time. Published authors Mary Beth Keane and Gina Welch each read excerpts from their writing and also offered their opinions and perspectives of the writing process. While Mary Beth Keane’s excerpt described the life of an Irish immigrant family, Gina Welch’s excerpt described her experience in the Evangelical Church where she concealed her identity as a nonbeliever for an extended period of time.

As Keane shared her excerpt, I wanted to crawl into bed, drink some hot tea, and hold my teddy bear. This reading brought me back to the days in which my parents would read to me before I fell asleep. Keane’s writing is descriptive and smooth. While she read, I could picture myself in the hills of Ireland, smell the fish being caught and hear the Irish accent we PS I Love You movie viewers adore. The details she incorporates into her writing create a vivid illustration of the setting as well as the emotions felt by the different characters within the story. I’ve always enjoyed being read to and it was a pleasure to listen to Keane’ soft, calm voice activate some of the childhood memories I hold dear.

Welch’s excerpt provoked quite different emotions in me. I certainly believe in the power of individuality – Welch can maintain her opinions and beliefs just as I can maintain my own. However, I was a bit astonished at hearing her blatantly laugh at the face of God and the members of the Evangelical Church. She lied to those people, made them believe she herself was a believer and even “prayed” with a little girl to bring her to Christ. During her membership in the church, Welch develops relationships with many members. Eventually she has to confront the reality of having lied to them. Although this reality is confronted, Welch feels no shame for her actions. In fact, upon returning to the church after her memoir is published, she does not ask for forgiveness but merely proves her accountability. In her discussion, Welch stated she did not undergo and transformation in her experience her perception of evangelical Christians remains nearly the same – obsessive with self reflection and their faith being merely a “chamber of imagination”. From a moral standpoint, I don’t exactly agree with the premise of the novel.

Despite my personal reaction to the content of Welch’s story, I did enjoy her writing. I could easily sense her emotions throughout both excerpts. From a publishing standpoint, I can understand the interest this story could perk in others because I was interested as I listened. This is a different topic to read and interesting at that.

At the end of the read aloud, both authors answered questions from the audience. Both authors discussed the tediousness of the publication process and Keane even shared that at one point, she threw away one-hundred pages of writing and started over! I myself cannot imagine putting one-hundred pages of effort into a piece and throwing it all away and I admire Keane for continuing her writing. The authors also described how writing published novels has shaped their teaching of writing in the classroom. Although I am unable to recall their exact responses, I know I would enjoy taking a class from Mary Beth Keane so as to better my detailed descriptions of settings and emotions. I was interested in hearing the responses each author provided and also impressed by the amount of questions posed by the audience members.