The Great Fire Compendium
Moves in the prose
- Thoughts on the first page: Jarring prose.
- "That was the scene, for those who might later recall it, on a spring night of 1947..." (14) Nice move, hints at the future, at what will be recalled.
- "Words, Leith thought, that a woman might have used.... ' We have the evening, the night' These words, too, sounded incongruously lover-like. They sat, silenced by all they might say." Beautiful, beautiful prose.
- "Oh, Moira, he'd said, our sad story. And she had shed silent tears not intended to change things. Her arched throat and spread hair, and the day dying in the wet window." Wow. I am awed by the beautiful writing. If I could write a single sentence this compelling, I would be pleased. She has a very poetic approach to her prose. I love how she instantly grounds us in the specific-- an arched throat, spread hair. The way the time of day is described-- the day dying in the wet window. Wow. So evocative, so seductive, so poignant.
- "The boy looked down, shy about what moved him." A beautiful, tender moment. A simple sentence. Attaching a confession to a gesture.
- "He disliked, of course, his name on her lips; and she knew it." - What one feels, what another is aware of. Simple sentences, yet it accomplishes so much.
- " Her voice had that lightness, not quite of childhood, that precedes female experience. Since love, like influenza, leaves a huskiness. She walked off composedly enough, but, as the man saw, ran the last steps to her brother's side." This is perfect. The way she keys in on the quality of a voice. The comparison of love to influenza. The way the man notices the way she walks, and the specific detail of her running the last steps (when she feels she is far enough away from him to forget about her composure). Vivid and undeniable.
- "All were quiet then: the girl and boy, and the man on the path who feared to disturb them." How seamlessly she zooms in and out. In space, and in a character's mind too.
- "He believed that he did not want her there... Again, he believed that he did not want to do this." How interesting, that she words it in this way, to clearly distinguish between the conscious and unconscious desires of the character, how the two may be contradicting, how the character may not even be aware of what it is he desires.
- Her prose is most effective when she writes, " He astonished himself with an impulse to take her in his arms, which of course he cold not do. Yet some tenderness passed between them, in reaction to the horror of the morning. The entire world, he thought, needs comforting." This is an example of when the distant and close, distant and close, approach works nicely. We are observing from far but are capable of entering the thoughts of the character. Also, love the he astonished himself with...
- "Helen thanked him for the book, smiling with all her clear eyes. Her enthusiasm shamed him for having chosen the volume he could most easily dispense with." (45) Love! Absolutely love. This is exactly why I love reading. For that thought, that particular shame, that very human moment exchanged between the two of them.
- Love: "A child, excited. A woman, and beautiful." Not only for how pleasing this is, on the level of the sentence. The placement of the commas. But also because of what it says about her ( Helen ), and Leith, who is observing her. How she can be both a child excited and a woman beautiful, in one girl.
- "Exley was thinking that he could say this to Leith." Amazing. To write what a character would say to another, but does not say. Very effective.
- "Peter Exley heard himself say..." Interesting move, to make a character hear what they are saying. As if even what he does is happening to him.
- How pleasing it is when he writes to Helen, on page 112, and writes "My" before her name. Little details like that.
- Page 145, "When she goes back to her room and takes off her earrings and shoes, and her dress, and looks in the mirror, what will she recall of these moments and, for worse or better, smile about?" Loved this. A moment in scene that lifts to imagining what will happen for her in the future, when she is looking back on the moment still occurring in present. What makes this especially pleasurable is the details. It is not just, what will she remember of this night? But, the earrings, the shoes, the dress, the looking at herself in the mirror-- and then, what will she remember. Wonderful.
- "In the recovered luggage, there were books that Helen might like to have." This. This is what love is. This is a mind in love. This is how it hits you-- in the midst of all the other thoughts and actions-- like a flash of lightening, a thought of that person. Page 151. I love how she does that. In the middle of long paragraphs there will be one line that stands alone, one line about a thought of his regarding Helen.
- "If the daughter had spoken, she would have said, "You are cruel". What an odd, interesting move. To put in quotation marks what would perhaps have been said. To realize that it is not actually being said-- puts emphasis on the relationship, on the tension, what the girl thinks but does not say.
- "Ben couldn't come." Helen says, on page 164, when Aldred sees her with Tad. And this says so much. It cuts straight to her. She knows she is standing next to the wrong man. Knows where she wants to be, knows that door is closing on her as they speak, knows, but is helpless, and can only say that her brother couldn't come. This is so perfect. So painful to me.
Lovely Lines:
"the platform faces receded into the expression of those who remain." Beautiful. Those who remain.
- "Body went on ahead; thought hung back"
- "Grey eyes, wide apart, wide awake."
- "He thought, how mood changes all, like an accident." Wow. Lovely. Poetic, snaps us into place too.
- "A thin shift disclosed her shoulder." Wow. This does what poetry should-- uses familiar words in an unfamiliar way to evoke what is known, creating a beautiful discovery of language and the world.
- "She wanted to ask about the large events of his own life, but could not bring herself to it. However, there might be a time, and one day he would tell her of his own accord."
- "If I get through this, the hours will be made to count."
-"...aware that men will display love when they cannot help themselves." Love, love, love, love. So grateful for this book. So grateful.
- "Helen looks at me as no one has for years. Perhaps no one ever." Wow. I'm in love with this book. There is nothing like it. Or this line, how perfect this line is.
- "There had been nothing to report, except what is invisible and irrefutable." Invisible and irrefutable works really well in this. Much more effective than if she had chosen a similar word that began with a different letter.
- "In the formal effect of silence, the waterfall played, without paradox, its part."
- "but he returned to them-- because he could not help believing in the sensibility of wounded persons." Perfect.
- "The human frame was often, to Peter Exley, incommensurate with all it must evince and bear."
Thoughts:
- The author is in love with colors. She is like a painter trying to write.
- The author is in love with love. Thoughts men have on women and beauty and the stirring of the heart, of tenderness, tender thoughts and moments-- her prose lifts when she talks about this.
- This is an undeniably pleasurable read.
- Her command over the English language is amazing.
- Throughout the novel, I am in awe with her accomplishment at the sentence level. They are gems.
- I did not do the book justice in one read, in one week. I need to read it again. I need to pay more attention. Every time I read it over I felt like I discovered something new.
- Her novel felt like poetry.
- Prose feels fresh and layered when it is full of contradictions and complexity, when it defies our expectations. Hers does that. It pushes us to new levels of understanding and thought because she confronts us with it.
- Why does she refer to Leith in different ways- Leith, Aldred Leith, Alred, son, man, etc-- what is the effects of this?
- Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. I am in love with this novel. Absolutely in love. She is a genius, her prose is so seductive, so beautiful!
- Page 128: How interesting, the line, "his mother's letters were attentively framed to avoid any late offering that her son might find, by now, an infringement." The thought that something so effortless as love from a parent, can feel, if it has come after years of being withheld, like an infringement. And a few lines later, his father's approach to raising his son is referred to as a "neglected hobby".
- It has been a long time since I've engaged with the English language in such a beautiful fresh way. Falling in love with the language.
- "In the interim, you're in love with this mermaid, for which anyone might envy you. As I do." How interesting, the thought of envying someone just for who they are in love with, not even a love that is consummated or vocally reciprocated.
War:
- "You look man in the eye, then cooly kill him. You drop a bomb and disassociate yourself from the consequences. Is it murder or is it war? Is war in any case murder?"
- "One is compelled to act collectively, yet revulsion, compassion will be felt privately, reciprocally.
Characterization/ Descriptions of People
- Done exceptionally well. Absolutely incredible.
- " Pride, or reticence, might be due simply to solitude. He saw a man who had been alone too long."
- "The girl was extremely slight, in body nearly a child; her unobtrusiveness so notable that one watched to see how it was done. The older woman's face was a tissue of wrinkles, expressionless."
- "Rysom was forever doing imitations: of a language, an accent, a personality; a man."
- "Skin like an apricot, with an apricot's minute brown flecks; straight black hair, not abundant, curved on shoulders. At her throat, in the soft hollow disclosed by a Western dress, a small gold crucifix quivered like a heart."
- "Body and gestures were lithe and unaffected."
- "Love could never be, for her, a calculated act. But she observed and understood herself, and soon withdrew."
- " Exley was touched. It usually fell on him to be the one who remembered." Absolutely love this ! So in love! How perfectly she captures the loneliness of being the one who remembers, and how much it means to someone to see that another remembers, too.
- "Brian Talbot wondered more about Leith's future than about his own." Woah, what a thought.
- There is no losing focus with her writing. You cannot stop paying attention. Every paragraph is constructed so well.
Dialogue:
I got the impression that the moments of dialogue where when we could access the characters most clearly, a tunnel into their voices and history that the prose did not allow.
"You're alive, aren't you. You can't have everything."
"I have so much to ask and am afraid of tiring you."
"You know about my wife?"
"I've had no such loss as yours."
An amazing quote that speaks to human suffering, and how we, in some ways, cling to our suffering. " You keep returning to these things. You can't close them down, as one closes down the compartment of a damaged ship just to keep the vessel going, or at least afloat.' He said, ' This difficulty of being.'"
"This time yesterday I hadn't met him. Today he's dead, and I'm his only mourner."
"The event rushes at you, you act without reflecting."
"One day it will all mean nothing."
"I don't know that it means anything now."
"A man who hasn't killed is incomplete, analogous to a woman who has never given birth."
Bennedict said, "He'll find you changed."
"In what way, changed?"
"With thinking of him."
(Bennedict) "What is it?"
"The book... Oh, the vast distances, forlorn partings, terrible journeys. The loneliness."
Ben said, "The helplessness, and longing."
She said, "The Never."
(to capitalize "never". Chilling.)
"If the moon came up only once in a hundred years, the whole world would stand watching."
"I hoped I'd see her-- not safe, exactly, but released."
"We're told possessions are ephemeral, yet my God how they outlast us-- the cloth on the bedside table, the cough drops, the diary with appointments for that very day."
"Be careful there. When we're indecisive, the wishes of others gain."
"Not guilt. Remorse. Rightful regret. Responsibility. Don't try to take that from me, Aldred-- one of the ways we come to know ourselves. As I discover. People tell you that the time will help-- they have to say something. They don't realize that one dreads time, the diminution. One doesn't want to get over it..."
Unforgettable Passages/ Pages
Page 46. The narration works so well on this page. Effortless. Close third
Page 86 & 87. A brother describing his sister, Helen, taking hold of his own life. Perfect. Amazing moment, amazing details he recalls, what a profound way of speaking, and also confronts his thoughts on the matter without trying to simplify it, complicates everything. I am in awe of it. Dramatic without being forced. Feels important.
Page 101. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. An intimate moment. How she drifts into Helen's thoughts ( how close we are, in this instant). And without explanation, into his, ( Helen looks at me as no one has for years. Perhaps no one ever). A beautiful, beautiful scene.
Page 104: An amazing examination of a moment, of what is in fact, then exploring the layers of what it could be, then lifting out to the future to what is to come, then snapping back to the present in light of that thought of the future, to realize how the character is feeling in that moment.
Page 147. Towards the bottom. Not only the dialogue ( which is exceptional ) but also, the last paragraph of dialogue "To incite love, then dismiss it-- I don't see that. Or to marry her, over the parents' convulsions, at an age when, whatever else she knows, she doesn't know herself-- another wrong. Even reasonable parents might be right to object." I loved this. I cannot contain my excitement at how perfect this passage is. The wording of 'whatever else she knows, she doesn't know herself'-- perfect. The thought of this man, deciding he will not pursue his love for this girl, because he acknowledges she does not know herself-- amazing. What depth in that thought, what tenderness, and poignancy.
- Page 128 & 129.
- Page 164. Perfection. Helen with Tad. Wearing his coat. How Aldred knows not to mention it, how he even notices that it is a coat he hasn't seen her in, how Hazzard writes, "that something warned him not to mention." Such perfect tension. Such sadness without being overly dramatic, or even expressed. How subtle that the most tense move is Helen, saying, "Ben couldn't come." The paragraph of Aldred returning to his room, hollowing. Then, the move to "Tad would take her hand in the dark." What Hazzard does so well, moves to a moment imagined in the future, but a moment that feels as though it is reality. It feels inevitable. And how it ends on, "He wished he had never seen her." Heart breaking. Then, "It was all absurd." This page is perfection. Page 165, also perfection. "You've never kissed her." Thad says, and it hits you that he has now kissed her. And it is just a kiss but it feels so weighty, because all we care about is Leith, and all we care about is Helen. And then the tense conversation that follows.
- Page 170 & 171. So perfect it does not need commenting on.
- Page 242 & 243. Interesting to me, that Leith often finds Aurora when she is grieving. Their conversation- her words, heart breaking.
Passages to help me with my writing/project:
- A woman who has lost her son: page 91. She brings him up in conversation.
- A girl who is asserting herself. Her brother who is noticing this. Page 86. Look how he captures the moment ( brother ), look how he evokes the weight of it, the gravity, the complexity.
- The whole book: how to write about love, about lovers, about falling in love, about the particulars of a person.
- Page 147: think of how terrible it is that girls are wed at 15, 16, 17, how she writes "Even reasonable parents might be right to object" and yet. Think of how a man who truly loves her would have the capability to think: she does not know herself.
- Page 168. The hollowness Helen feels. Not overly done, very subtle, a sadness that isn't obvious.
- On handling death. On handling grieving. page 242 & 243
Words:
Inviolable
Miasma
augury
inviolate
imprecation
unshod
sundered
embitter
gravid
traceries
sluice
quiescent
discomposed
aberrant
cairn
sagacious
scruples
gall
Avunclar
immemorial
quiescence
evince
Moves in the prose
- Thoughts on the first page: Jarring prose.
- "That was the scene, for those who might later recall it, on a spring night of 1947..." (14) Nice move, hints at the future, at what will be recalled.
- "Words, Leith thought, that a woman might have used.... ' We have the evening, the night' These words, too, sounded incongruously lover-like. They sat, silenced by all they might say." Beautiful, beautiful prose.
- "Oh, Moira, he'd said, our sad story. And she had shed silent tears not intended to change things. Her arched throat and spread hair, and the day dying in the wet window." Wow. I am awed by the beautiful writing. If I could write a single sentence this compelling, I would be pleased. She has a very poetic approach to her prose. I love how she instantly grounds us in the specific-- an arched throat, spread hair. The way the time of day is described-- the day dying in the wet window. Wow. So evocative, so seductive, so poignant.
- "The boy looked down, shy about what moved him." A beautiful, tender moment. A simple sentence. Attaching a confession to a gesture.
- "He disliked, of course, his name on her lips; and she knew it." - What one feels, what another is aware of. Simple sentences, yet it accomplishes so much.
- " Her voice had that lightness, not quite of childhood, that precedes female experience. Since love, like influenza, leaves a huskiness. She walked off composedly enough, but, as the man saw, ran the last steps to her brother's side." This is perfect. The way she keys in on the quality of a voice. The comparison of love to influenza. The way the man notices the way she walks, and the specific detail of her running the last steps (when she feels she is far enough away from him to forget about her composure). Vivid and undeniable.
- "All were quiet then: the girl and boy, and the man on the path who feared to disturb them." How seamlessly she zooms in and out. In space, and in a character's mind too.
- "He believed that he did not want her there... Again, he believed that he did not want to do this." How interesting, that she words it in this way, to clearly distinguish between the conscious and unconscious desires of the character, how the two may be contradicting, how the character may not even be aware of what it is he desires.
- Her prose is most effective when she writes, " He astonished himself with an impulse to take her in his arms, which of course he cold not do. Yet some tenderness passed between them, in reaction to the horror of the morning. The entire world, he thought, needs comforting." This is an example of when the distant and close, distant and close, approach works nicely. We are observing from far but are capable of entering the thoughts of the character. Also, love the he astonished himself with...
- "Helen thanked him for the book, smiling with all her clear eyes. Her enthusiasm shamed him for having chosen the volume he could most easily dispense with." (45) Love! Absolutely love. This is exactly why I love reading. For that thought, that particular shame, that very human moment exchanged between the two of them.
- Love: "A child, excited. A woman, and beautiful." Not only for how pleasing this is, on the level of the sentence. The placement of the commas. But also because of what it says about her ( Helen ), and Leith, who is observing her. How she can be both a child excited and a woman beautiful, in one girl.
- "Exley was thinking that he could say this to Leith." Amazing. To write what a character would say to another, but does not say. Very effective.
- "Peter Exley heard himself say..." Interesting move, to make a character hear what they are saying. As if even what he does is happening to him.
- How pleasing it is when he writes to Helen, on page 112, and writes "My" before her name. Little details like that.
- Page 145, "When she goes back to her room and takes off her earrings and shoes, and her dress, and looks in the mirror, what will she recall of these moments and, for worse or better, smile about?" Loved this. A moment in scene that lifts to imagining what will happen for her in the future, when she is looking back on the moment still occurring in present. What makes this especially pleasurable is the details. It is not just, what will she remember of this night? But, the earrings, the shoes, the dress, the looking at herself in the mirror-- and then, what will she remember. Wonderful.
- "In the recovered luggage, there were books that Helen might like to have." This. This is what love is. This is a mind in love. This is how it hits you-- in the midst of all the other thoughts and actions-- like a flash of lightening, a thought of that person. Page 151. I love how she does that. In the middle of long paragraphs there will be one line that stands alone, one line about a thought of his regarding Helen.
- "If the daughter had spoken, she would have said, "You are cruel". What an odd, interesting move. To put in quotation marks what would perhaps have been said. To realize that it is not actually being said-- puts emphasis on the relationship, on the tension, what the girl thinks but does not say.
- "Ben couldn't come." Helen says, on page 164, when Aldred sees her with Tad. And this says so much. It cuts straight to her. She knows she is standing next to the wrong man. Knows where she wants to be, knows that door is closing on her as they speak, knows, but is helpless, and can only say that her brother couldn't come. This is so perfect. So painful to me.
Lovely Lines:
"the platform faces receded into the expression of those who remain." Beautiful. Those who remain.
- "Body went on ahead; thought hung back"
- "Grey eyes, wide apart, wide awake."
- "He thought, how mood changes all, like an accident." Wow. Lovely. Poetic, snaps us into place too.
- "A thin shift disclosed her shoulder." Wow. This does what poetry should-- uses familiar words in an unfamiliar way to evoke what is known, creating a beautiful discovery of language and the world.
- "She wanted to ask about the large events of his own life, but could not bring herself to it. However, there might be a time, and one day he would tell her of his own accord."
- "If I get through this, the hours will be made to count."
-"...aware that men will display love when they cannot help themselves." Love, love, love, love. So grateful for this book. So grateful.
- "Helen looks at me as no one has for years. Perhaps no one ever." Wow. I'm in love with this book. There is nothing like it. Or this line, how perfect this line is.
- "There had been nothing to report, except what is invisible and irrefutable." Invisible and irrefutable works really well in this. Much more effective than if she had chosen a similar word that began with a different letter.
- "In the formal effect of silence, the waterfall played, without paradox, its part."
- "but he returned to them-- because he could not help believing in the sensibility of wounded persons." Perfect.
- "The human frame was often, to Peter Exley, incommensurate with all it must evince and bear."
Thoughts:
- The author is in love with colors. She is like a painter trying to write.
- The author is in love with love. Thoughts men have on women and beauty and the stirring of the heart, of tenderness, tender thoughts and moments-- her prose lifts when she talks about this.
- This is an undeniably pleasurable read.
- Her command over the English language is amazing.
- Throughout the novel, I am in awe with her accomplishment at the sentence level. They are gems.
- I did not do the book justice in one read, in one week. I need to read it again. I need to pay more attention. Every time I read it over I felt like I discovered something new.
- Her novel felt like poetry.
- Prose feels fresh and layered when it is full of contradictions and complexity, when it defies our expectations. Hers does that. It pushes us to new levels of understanding and thought because she confronts us with it.
- Why does she refer to Leith in different ways- Leith, Aldred Leith, Alred, son, man, etc-- what is the effects of this?
- Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. I am in love with this novel. Absolutely in love. She is a genius, her prose is so seductive, so beautiful!
- Page 128: How interesting, the line, "his mother's letters were attentively framed to avoid any late offering that her son might find, by now, an infringement." The thought that something so effortless as love from a parent, can feel, if it has come after years of being withheld, like an infringement. And a few lines later, his father's approach to raising his son is referred to as a "neglected hobby".
- It has been a long time since I've engaged with the English language in such a beautiful fresh way. Falling in love with the language.
- "In the interim, you're in love with this mermaid, for which anyone might envy you. As I do." How interesting, the thought of envying someone just for who they are in love with, not even a love that is consummated or vocally reciprocated.
War:
- "You look man in the eye, then cooly kill him. You drop a bomb and disassociate yourself from the consequences. Is it murder or is it war? Is war in any case murder?"
- "One is compelled to act collectively, yet revulsion, compassion will be felt privately, reciprocally.
Characterization/ Descriptions of People
- Done exceptionally well. Absolutely incredible.
- " Pride, or reticence, might be due simply to solitude. He saw a man who had been alone too long."
- "The girl was extremely slight, in body nearly a child; her unobtrusiveness so notable that one watched to see how it was done. The older woman's face was a tissue of wrinkles, expressionless."
- "Rysom was forever doing imitations: of a language, an accent, a personality; a man."
- "Skin like an apricot, with an apricot's minute brown flecks; straight black hair, not abundant, curved on shoulders. At her throat, in the soft hollow disclosed by a Western dress, a small gold crucifix quivered like a heart."
- "Body and gestures were lithe and unaffected."
- "Love could never be, for her, a calculated act. But she observed and understood herself, and soon withdrew."
- " Exley was touched. It usually fell on him to be the one who remembered." Absolutely love this ! So in love! How perfectly she captures the loneliness of being the one who remembers, and how much it means to someone to see that another remembers, too.
- "Brian Talbot wondered more about Leith's future than about his own." Woah, what a thought.
- There is no losing focus with her writing. You cannot stop paying attention. Every paragraph is constructed so well.
Dialogue:
I got the impression that the moments of dialogue where when we could access the characters most clearly, a tunnel into their voices and history that the prose did not allow.
"You're alive, aren't you. You can't have everything."
"I have so much to ask and am afraid of tiring you."
"You know about my wife?"
"I've had no such loss as yours."
An amazing quote that speaks to human suffering, and how we, in some ways, cling to our suffering. " You keep returning to these things. You can't close them down, as one closes down the compartment of a damaged ship just to keep the vessel going, or at least afloat.' He said, ' This difficulty of being.'"
"This time yesterday I hadn't met him. Today he's dead, and I'm his only mourner."
"The event rushes at you, you act without reflecting."
"One day it will all mean nothing."
"I don't know that it means anything now."
"A man who hasn't killed is incomplete, analogous to a woman who has never given birth."
Bennedict said, "He'll find you changed."
"In what way, changed?"
"With thinking of him."
(Bennedict) "What is it?"
"The book... Oh, the vast distances, forlorn partings, terrible journeys. The loneliness."
Ben said, "The helplessness, and longing."
She said, "The Never."
(to capitalize "never". Chilling.)
"If the moon came up only once in a hundred years, the whole world would stand watching."
"I hoped I'd see her-- not safe, exactly, but released."
"We're told possessions are ephemeral, yet my God how they outlast us-- the cloth on the bedside table, the cough drops, the diary with appointments for that very day."
"Be careful there. When we're indecisive, the wishes of others gain."
"Not guilt. Remorse. Rightful regret. Responsibility. Don't try to take that from me, Aldred-- one of the ways we come to know ourselves. As I discover. People tell you that the time will help-- they have to say something. They don't realize that one dreads time, the diminution. One doesn't want to get over it..."
Unforgettable Passages/ Pages
Page 46. The narration works so well on this page. Effortless. Close third
Page 86 & 87. A brother describing his sister, Helen, taking hold of his own life. Perfect. Amazing moment, amazing details he recalls, what a profound way of speaking, and also confronts his thoughts on the matter without trying to simplify it, complicates everything. I am in awe of it. Dramatic without being forced. Feels important.
Page 101. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. An intimate moment. How she drifts into Helen's thoughts ( how close we are, in this instant). And without explanation, into his, ( Helen looks at me as no one has for years. Perhaps no one ever). A beautiful, beautiful scene.
Page 104: An amazing examination of a moment, of what is in fact, then exploring the layers of what it could be, then lifting out to the future to what is to come, then snapping back to the present in light of that thought of the future, to realize how the character is feeling in that moment.
Page 147. Towards the bottom. Not only the dialogue ( which is exceptional ) but also, the last paragraph of dialogue "To incite love, then dismiss it-- I don't see that. Or to marry her, over the parents' convulsions, at an age when, whatever else she knows, she doesn't know herself-- another wrong. Even reasonable parents might be right to object." I loved this. I cannot contain my excitement at how perfect this passage is. The wording of 'whatever else she knows, she doesn't know herself'-- perfect. The thought of this man, deciding he will not pursue his love for this girl, because he acknowledges she does not know herself-- amazing. What depth in that thought, what tenderness, and poignancy.
- Page 128 & 129.
- Page 164. Perfection. Helen with Tad. Wearing his coat. How Aldred knows not to mention it, how he even notices that it is a coat he hasn't seen her in, how Hazzard writes, "that something warned him not to mention." Such perfect tension. Such sadness without being overly dramatic, or even expressed. How subtle that the most tense move is Helen, saying, "Ben couldn't come." The paragraph of Aldred returning to his room, hollowing. Then, the move to "Tad would take her hand in the dark." What Hazzard does so well, moves to a moment imagined in the future, but a moment that feels as though it is reality. It feels inevitable. And how it ends on, "He wished he had never seen her." Heart breaking. Then, "It was all absurd." This page is perfection. Page 165, also perfection. "You've never kissed her." Thad says, and it hits you that he has now kissed her. And it is just a kiss but it feels so weighty, because all we care about is Leith, and all we care about is Helen. And then the tense conversation that follows.
- Page 170 & 171. So perfect it does not need commenting on.
- Page 242 & 243. Interesting to me, that Leith often finds Aurora when she is grieving. Their conversation- her words, heart breaking.
Passages to help me with my writing/project:
- A woman who has lost her son: page 91. She brings him up in conversation.
- A girl who is asserting herself. Her brother who is noticing this. Page 86. Look how he captures the moment ( brother ), look how he evokes the weight of it, the gravity, the complexity.
- The whole book: how to write about love, about lovers, about falling in love, about the particulars of a person.
- Page 147: think of how terrible it is that girls are wed at 15, 16, 17, how she writes "Even reasonable parents might be right to object" and yet. Think of how a man who truly loves her would have the capability to think: she does not know herself.
- Page 168. The hollowness Helen feels. Not overly done, very subtle, a sadness that isn't obvious.
- On handling death. On handling grieving. page 242 & 243
Words:
Inviolable
Miasma
augury
inviolate
imprecation
unshod
sundered
embitter
gravid
traceries
sluice
quiescent
discomposed
aberrant
cairn
sagacious
scruples
gall
Avunclar
immemorial
quiescence
evince
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