Garden party

Question

I crouched behind a neighbor's hedge and watched them for ten or fifteen minutes, and man, the longer I watched, the madder I got. My grandfather had already said more to her in this little slice of time than he'd said to me the whole year and a half he'd been living with us. What was his deal with Juli Baker?

I took the back way home, which involved climbing two fences and kicking off the neighbor's stupid little terrier, but it was worth it, considering I avoided the garden party across the street.

What is garden party? It looks that the speaker chose another way back home in order to avoid sth.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

DelaWhat is garden party?

A party outdoors. The speaker didn't want to have to explain his presence to a lot of strangers having a party, apparently.

CJ

Dela · Answer

so it's simply an outdoor party, nothing to do with Juli and his grandpa? I had taken it as the speaker chose another way back home to avoid being seen by his granda.

Stephenmatlock · Answer

To call it a "garden party" is to say it's not worth his time. If you remember Aesop's Fables, this is an example of sour grapes. He's dismissing the party as not that big a deal.

He was getting mad (obviously) that his grandfather was talking with her (Juli?), and that his grandfather was more interested in her than in him. So he chose not to talk to his grandfather or acknowledge him. Instead, he went the back way home, had an altercation with his neighbor's dog, and went home, feeling perhaps satisified but really frustrated and angry.

Garden party

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