Many accomplished contemporary writers can suck us into their worlds through the first page, efficiently introduce their characters already in full gallop then wow us with their style, vocabulary, observations and deep thoughts. But they often leave us little time to look around the space they’ve created, to examine what and with whom we’re dealing before the Story hustles us along. So much is thrown at us so fast that we feel a bit bludgeoned, somewhat overwhelmed by action, sometimes smothered in solipsism and often overtaken by claustrophobia.
ANTHONY DOERR doesn’t do that. The Pulitzer-prize winning author is one of those rare people who seems to have maintained a child-like curiosity and wonder despite his education and adulthood and he creates wide, spacious worlds full of light and air and his characters, seen from afar at first, are slowly brought into focus, as is the story. He uses short sentences and simple but unexpected words. He believes the right details in the right places will convince his readers of what he’s trying to convey. And does he ever use details. Not lists of them à la Joyce Carol Oates or screeds of empty adjectives but pulsating nouns and verbs that create images writhing with color and textures like a Goghian painting. Cypresses seethe, roots prowl, helicopters ratchet, fountains roar and stars burn. A myriad details are tossed on to the page like confetti that outlines in negative space what he wants us to know. We assemble the details into the mosaic we want. We read like Seurat paints, our senses aquiver with sights, sounds, smells, textures and flavors as the story moves us along at the speed of an eyeball.
He writes about Romans’ acceptance of death: “I agree to live now, live as sweetly as I can, to fill my clothes with wind and my eyes with lights...”
And he also does slow endings, gliding us to a soft stop as if he doesn’t want to stop writing, just as we don’t want to stop reading. It’s the reluctant parting of lovers.
These quotes are mostly from FOUR SEASONS IN ROME which I started reading immediately after finishing ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE because I didn’t want to leave his worlds or words.
He writes about Romans’ acceptance of death: “I agree to live now, live as sweetly as I can, to fill my clothes with wind and my eyes with lights...”
And he also does slow endings, gliding us to a soft stop as if he doesn’t want to stop writing, just as we don’t want to stop reading. It’s the reluctant parting of lovers.
These quotes are mostly from FOUR SEASONS IN ROME which I started reading immediately after finishing ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE because I didn’t want to leave his worlds or words.
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