This is a powerful, poignant song. It's third person until near the end when "as you write your resume" pops us out of a woman's thoughts about her uncle and we realize what the moment is: She's writing a resume, thinking of elaborate half-truths that she can use to make herself sound better, when the dishonesty of that reminds her of Uncle Alvarez, who told elaborate self-aggrandizing lies.
There's an error in the lyrics above: It should be "We feel sorry for the wall." Uncle Alvarez is dead and only his portrait remains. The family never thought much of him, due to his confabulations, and their dismissal of him extends to feeling sorry for the wall that has to put up with him.
His lies seem to go beyond exaggeration, however, and straight on to delusion. Anyone who fought in the Civil War would have been dead long before Liz's generation could remember them. And so, she looks back on him not with disdain so much as pity, and you hear the affection several times in her singing.
Finally, she sees him as a cautionary tale. All of his lies and delusions made others look down on him and isolated him from them. And at the moment she considers a few embellishments on her resume, she wonders if that would put her on the path to being like Uncle Alvarez, and she decides to be truthful instead.
@rikdad101@yahoo.com
This is a very astute, emotionally perceptive, and articulate discussion. I think you are right on the money here.
@rikdad101@yahoo.com
This is a very astute, emotionally perceptive, and articulate discussion. I think you are right on the money here.
We do in fact "hear the affection...in her singing" several times. He's dead now but the singer apparently knew him when he was alive (and she was much younger - maybe even a kid?). She speaks with what sounds like first hand knowledge of the man. An uncle would have been of the same generation as her parents, so that kind of tracks. Seems like he's the ambitious and imaginative but not very smart brother who hatched a...
We do in fact "hear the affection...in her singing" several times. He's dead now but the singer apparently knew him when he was alive (and she was much younger - maybe even a kid?). She speaks with what sounds like first hand knowledge of the man. An uncle would have been of the same generation as her parents, so that kind of tracks. Seems like he's the ambitious and imaginative but not very smart brother who hatched a lot of schemes and talked a lot of talk but never really made good. And apparently he died younger than his siblings. Maybe a somewhat beloved but exasperating dumbass?
I am reminded of the handsome and likeable but kind of worthless father in 'A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.' Or of my own estranged grandfather who once sent us a letter with a cringingly obvious attempt at putting his name into a clipped newspaper article about someone who did something impressive and lucrative. Or of Paul Manafort, Trump's compulsively confabulating 2016 campaign manager who, when prosecuted, tried to flip on his handlers in exchange for a lighter sentence but told so many bald-faced lies that the FBI could not use any of his testimony in court.
This is a powerful, poignant song. It's third person until near the end when "as you write your resume" pops us out of a woman's thoughts about her uncle and we realize what the moment is: She's writing a resume, thinking of elaborate half-truths that she can use to make herself sound better, when the dishonesty of that reminds her of Uncle Alvarez, who told elaborate self-aggrandizing lies.
There's an error in the lyrics above: It should be "We feel sorry for the wall." Uncle Alvarez is dead and only his portrait remains. The family never thought much of him, due to his confabulations, and their dismissal of him extends to feeling sorry for the wall that has to put up with him.
His lies seem to go beyond exaggeration, however, and straight on to delusion. Anyone who fought in the Civil War would have been dead long before Liz's generation could remember them. And so, she looks back on him not with disdain so much as pity, and you hear the affection several times in her singing.
Finally, she sees him as a cautionary tale. All of his lies and delusions made others look down on him and isolated him from them. And at the moment she considers a few embellishments on her resume, she wonders if that would put her on the path to being like Uncle Alvarez, and she decides to be truthful instead.
@rikdad101@yahoo.com This is a very astute, emotionally perceptive, and articulate discussion. I think you are right on the money here.
@rikdad101@yahoo.com This is a very astute, emotionally perceptive, and articulate discussion. I think you are right on the money here.
We do in fact "hear the affection...in her singing" several times. He's dead now but the singer apparently knew him when he was alive (and she was much younger - maybe even a kid?). She speaks with what sounds like first hand knowledge of the man. An uncle would have been of the same generation as her parents, so that kind of tracks. Seems like he's the ambitious and imaginative but not very smart brother who hatched a...
We do in fact "hear the affection...in her singing" several times. He's dead now but the singer apparently knew him when he was alive (and she was much younger - maybe even a kid?). She speaks with what sounds like first hand knowledge of the man. An uncle would have been of the same generation as her parents, so that kind of tracks. Seems like he's the ambitious and imaginative but not very smart brother who hatched a lot of schemes and talked a lot of talk but never really made good. And apparently he died younger than his siblings. Maybe a somewhat beloved but exasperating dumbass?
I am reminded of the handsome and likeable but kind of worthless father in 'A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.' Or of my own estranged grandfather who once sent us a letter with a cringingly obvious attempt at putting his name into a clipped newspaper article about someone who did something impressive and lucrative. Or of Paul Manafort, Trump's compulsively confabulating 2016 campaign manager who, when prosecuted, tried to flip on his handlers in exchange for a lighter sentence but told so many bald-faced lies that the FBI could not use any of his testimony in court.