Wow! I Just finished reading the introduction to the book, and I have a lot of questions already. As to the title of book, it indicates that there is going to be a great deal of suffering regarding the characters. Falling on your knees is generally used to represent giving up, or admitting defeat. It can also mean admitting inferiority to another character. I feel like, in this novel, there will be a lot of character versus character conflict, with one chracter holding the power, and the other character (most likely the protagonist) suffering because of it. Obviously, this book is not going to be a very happy story.
The introduction, only four pages long, gives a lot of information about the story, but also leaves the reader wondering what the story is about. One of my main questions is regarding the narrative format. The story is told as if the narrator is telling a specific person, like a friend the story of the life of someone else. It is written as if they are talking, and some of the sentences are not complete ideas, as if their mind is wandering as they speak. Who this someone is, we do not know yet. They introduce several chracters, through pictures. The introduction almost has a haunting aura to it. My favourite quote from this introduction is "Imagine you can hear the creek trickling. Like a girl telling a secret in a language so much like out own" (MacDonald 3).
I have a lot of questions about many things in this chapter.
-Who is the narrator? Why is he/she telling this story? Who are they telling it to?
-What is "our language?"
-Who are the people the narrator is talking about?
-Why are all of Kathleen's photos burned?
-Is there a reason that there are so many deaths in this family?
Overall, i am already happy that i have chosen this book. I can't wait to read on and discover to what purpose all this introductory information is given to the reader.
