There was definitely "complication" in the story of Wilk. I definitely felt like I knew the character and had a good idea of who he was as a person, and the difficulties he faced in his life. I was intrigued by his life and his accomplishments in the first half of the story but I must admit I tuned out the second half pretty easily. I can't seem to figure out why. I loved the ending, there wasn't necessary a resolution, but it was a good enough "fix" to the problem that I was satisfied.
If I were to guess where my boredom stemmed from, I would say that the story was a tad repetitive. I wanted to see more complication maybe, more struggle (that sounds horrible, I know). Everytime Wilk had a new aspiration it seemed to be the same path to success- which is good for him, but I felt as if I could skim it and get the gist of what happened. However, now as I read my comment I feel like I don't agree with what I am typing because I did get into his life goals, and felt myself feeling relieved when he left for Rome. Either way, this piece did not hit home with me. Especially compared to Mrs. Kelly's Monster.
***
The profile about Dr. Seuss was great! I loved the way it was written and I love Dr. Seuss. I liked him as an author before having read this profile but now I like him and admire him as a person. Gorney does an incredible job at highlighting all his accomplishments while pairing them with Dr. Seuss' extremely unique and eccentric personality. The anecdote about his adult novels was so intriguing to me, and opened a whole new book into Seuss' life and endeavors. His approach to writing children's books is fascinating to me, and yet so simple.
Gorney's language is very simple, and when she weaves in "Seussisms" the author really gets a good idea of who this man is. Seuss speaks his own language and Gorney introduces the reader to his way of speaking in a manner that is not explicit or intruisive to the story.
The one comment Dr. Seuss makes about spending his birthday in Las Vegas that "Nobody will look for a children's book author in Las Vegas" is so revealing into his personality. Gorney makes that statement a paragraph of its own and I found myself a bit taken aback after reading it. But I liked it, a lot.
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The Dr. Seuss piece really stuck with me too.In addition to what you've said, I also found the point that he treats children as equals revealing. He doesn't believe that children are too simple-minded to understand complex topics, so long as your explanations are simple and deliberate enough. It kind of inspired me to think about that in the journalistic sense, that we have to be brief and concise, often using simple sentences to make complex topics readable for an audience that might know nothing about the topic before seeing our headline and deciding to read our work.
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