Reaction to Joe Drape

I really enjoyed having Joe Drape in class. Getting to talk with a New York Times writer about his book is pretty cool to be able to do. I also thought it was cool that he was a fellow KCMO kid.

One of the things that really struck me about Drape and his attitude toward his book was that he made no excuses. He recognizes the flaws that people see in parts of the writing. The large number of names, too many details, etc. didn't really bother him. In fact, when it was mentioned that there were so many names, he laughed about it. He acknowledged that he had heard that criticism a lot and that the original draft had even more names than that.

I definitely think that's one sign of a good writer. It's great that a guy as big-time as Drape is (a New York Times sports writer) can still take a critique from anybody. That's pretty refreshing to see.

I also liked how honest he was about the way he fell in love with the town. He was pretty blunt with his feelings for the town in the book and that carried over into his discussion with us. I also thought it was interesting that the only place in Smith Center that Drape didn't go was the town bar because he didn't want to see the underage Redmen downing cold brews.