Review of T.C. Boyle’s “Greasy Lake”
• It’s true that one
doesn’t often see reviews of stand-alone short stories, but that doesn’t mean
we can’t write them. So, for this assignment, I would like you to treat
"Greasy Lake" as a professional movie reviewer would a movie, he/she
was reviewing. Mainly, you are to determine whether you would recommend the
story or not, and for what reasons. For this assignment, write your own
opinions of the story, using no outside sources. To complete this assignment
successfully, you will need to:
• Find good models. Look
at movie reviews, book reviews, restaurant reviews. See what is typical of your
favorite reviews and use these reviews as models for your own review.
• Consider how you wish
to organize your essay. In other words, perhaps it is best to begin with your
recommendation first, and go from there, or maybe it is better to begin with a
summary of the story and then move into the parts of the story you liked.
Whatever organization you choose, you want to have the biggest impact on the
reader that you can.
• Assign a rating to the
story. It is up to you what kind of rating system to use. You can make up your
own, if you’d like, or you may use one we are all familiar with, such as
assigning the story a certain number of stars or giving the story a thumbs-up
or a thumbs-down. Whatever it is, this rating should appear somewhere in the
review.
