This is a fiction work published in the literary magazine Tin House and it is called Uncertainty. I think that this prose was selected because of the impeccable writing style, use of pacing and for originality. I enjoyed reading this piece because it was easy to follow and was also not a boring read as the plot was engaging. The writing was very fresh and it had a variety of sentences, which was nice. The sentences we not too long and they were not too short either.

The beginning of the story just drops us right into it as it starts with “we heard it the first time” and readers begin to wonder what they heard. By dropping us into the middle of the story, the writer piqued our interest. Generally, I think the whole piece does a good job in keeping the readers in suspense, as the male character is such a spontaneous character and can do anything unexpectedly. We are always kept at our toes. The suspense is built up very well and I like how it ties to the title of the piece; Uncertainty. There were moments of uncertainty from both the female character and the readers. In terms of the female character, it was telling her husband that she was pregnant and for the readers, it was that we were waiting to see how he would save the dog and deal with the fat man, Fat Archie.

The dialogue to narrative ratio was good. There wasn’t a lot of dialogue over-powering the story and most of the events were unfolded through the main character, the wife. As this was told in first person narrative, we were able to get a personal touch to the story and it also did not sound monotonous as the pacing was varied throughout the story. The pacing was almost deliberately slow in the beginning before we reached the part where Nate stole the dog. Then the pacing turned a little fast after that and the scene where the protagonist is wondering how they’re going to pay eight-thousand-dollars when she is pregnant and still has to pay off her loans. The writer’s ideas were not jumbled all over and there was development which made the text easier to read.