As detailed as it gets

#jrm322 blog post on a feature story that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1979. Story is titled "Mrs. Kelly's Monster."

When I first began reading this feature story, I thought I was reading a short story. Jon Franklin does a wonderful job of bringing the reader into the story. The use of present tense and the exceptional detail Franklin gives, makes the reader feel as though you are in the emergency room with the doctors, nurses, and Mrs. Kelly. To be honest though, I felt the story goes into to much detail where Franklin could also lose the reader. I know the procedure that the doctor performed was very extreme and difficult, but the description he relays during points of the surgery is not needed in my opinion. Parts of the story could be left out, and Franklin could still achieve what he is trying to do, and that is taking the reader inside of that emergency room to show the difficulty of the procedure.

I do have to say that Franklin does give us a great idea of the emotions going on in the room. Dr. Drucker and the other nurses, and the anxiety and concentration they had during the story makes the reader more inclined to the read the article, but like I said, Franklin lost my attention to the feature story, but including too much. There is no need to go into extreme detail of the tools the doctor uses. Half the readers aren't going to understand what these tools are, as well as where all of her aneurysms are in Mrs. Kelly. But on the other hand, this piece did win the Pulitzer Prize in 1979, so who I am to say there is too much detail. This makes me think of the bigger picture. Feature stories these days focus on different things, and take different angles then what stories were meant to do back in 1979. Maybe my criticism is not needed, and though I thought the story was too much like a short story and had too much detail, the story accomplishes what the author wanted, and that is to take the reader into the story, and into that emergency room for an inside exclusive look.