Friday, June 01, 2007

Writing style

I adore Munro's language, the rather plain but artistic descriptions that paint such a clear image of the characters and setting. What were some of your favorite descriptions? Here are a few lines that I made note of:

Her teeth were all crowded to the front of her mouth as if they were ready for an argument.

It looked glamorous to her, like satin bedspreads and blond hair.

Since her own operation -- for gallstones -- she spoke knowledgeably and with a placid satisfaction about the afflictions of other people.

The sound of her activity would be like a net beneath him, heaven-sent, a bounty not to be questioned.

After Mrs. Willets her heart had been dry, and she had considered it might always be so. And now such a warm commotion, such busy love.
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4 comments:

kc said...

I don't have the book in front of me now, so I'll have to answer this from home later, but the teeth in the front of the mouth really grabbed me. I instantly grasped that look. I've seen it a million times, but I would never have thought to describe it like that. That's her genius, for me, a big part of it, describing something perfectly — in a way most people wouldn't have conjured but with which they identify immediately and completely.

10:35 PM, June 01, 2007
Erin said...

I love that, too. She can bring a perfectly clear image to mind in a way you would not have thought of.

11:01 PM, June 01, 2007
Ben said...

This time she didn't look as if she'd been stuck into the garment for a joke.

"The Western Fair," the woman said. "In London." She could have been saying "the Castle Ball."

It was the rare person who took to her, and she'd been aware of that for a long time.

He woke in the house alone, with no smell of coffee or breakfast coming from the kitchen---instead, there was a whiff of the burned pot still in the air.

Edith and Sabitha used the words "shit" and "bitch" and "Jesus Christ" when they were alone together.

"Ugga-ugga" was an expression she had picked up from her cousins.

She laughed at warnings---she would laugh even if you told her that chocolate eclairs would make her fat.

She thought at once that this was no way to treat good clothes, so she went boldly into the room....

"I thought it was a dream. It was you."

For where, on the list of things she planned to achieve in her life, was there any mention of her being responsible for the existence on earth of a person named Omar?

11:18 PM, June 01, 2007
cl said...

I have a special place in my heart for Edith.

She noticed everything, and she remembered everything, quickly memorizing who pages of the textbooks in a way the other children found sinister.

In church she had taken the precaution of not speaking to Sabitha first, before Sabitha could not speak to her.

and

She paused, chewing her pencil, then finished off with a chill of satisfaction, "- what fate has in store for me, or for you -"

9:32 AM, June 04, 2007

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