I must admit I did enjoy this book, Joe Gould’s character seems so eccentric. I found it funny how for a majority of the story everyone was so willing to help Joe Gould, but eventually grew tired of his theatrics and turned their backs on him. It seemed as if his life was a cycle of disappointments. His mother continuously sent him money until she grew tired of his life on the reservations with the Indians. Another thing I found interesting was the moment Gould over hears the principle making fun of him, it’s almost like a loss of innocence. As a little kid, he knew was a different from the other children but to hear an adult speak of him the way other children looked at him was a harsh dose of reality. Furthermore, the reaction he gets from his father is even more hurtful. I think it is in this moment Joe Gould became the eccentric character he displayed to Joe Mitchell. Gould seems truly lost throughout the story, constantly redoing things because he never got it quite right like in his “Oral History”. I feel he made up the “oral history” to show the relevance of the things people say. His principle’s words changed his life and his father’s dismissive attitude towards him afterwards; I think this was a key moment for him. He learned to walk to the beat of his own drum, because if he couldn’t impress his own father, what difference would the rest of the world make. There were times in the book when I wondered if anyone questioned his mental state. There were times I believed something may have been truly wrong with him, but he was smart, and he knew how to survive, he was able to use his charismatic personality to live off of the people he knew. I feel Joe Gould carried on as if he didn’t care about the opinions of others, but it seems everything he did was a cry for attention. Weather it was to upset people or to entertain, he just always brought attention to himself the best ways he could.