From _The Master_ by Colm Toibin (p.139 large print):
"...he remembered the aura of certainty and dependability which lay about his friend (Holmes). Even at twenty-two Holmes had believed that the world he inhabited was a world in which he would thrive. He was formed like a planing machine to gorge a deep self-beneficial groove through life."

From The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

Let us go then, you and I
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table

Andy wrote:
From The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

"Let us go then, you and I
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table"

Mmmmmm. Nice.

Another simile from _The Master_, p.80 (large print):
"...he tried to put all thoughts of his failure out of his mind.
Instead he thought about money ... he thought of travel ... he thought of work, ideas and characters, moments of clarity. He controlled these thoughts, he knew they were like candles leading him through the dark."

"The day of battle dawned pink as the fresh-bitten thigh of a maiden."
— Roger Zelazny in Lord of Light

Zelazny has such a way with words. His books are & have been among my favorites for ages. Very re-readable, if you like fantasy/SF.

Ooo, la, la! (lol)

Yeah, that one gets to me on so many levels. That's the kind of thing he does so well - mixes the horror of war with the beauty of a sun rise along with such a sexy picture. Whether the sexy picture is fallen innocence or sheer beauty & sex depends on MY mood. Mixing any two is often done, mixing all of it in so few words is his forte.

Jim wrote: "...mixing all of it in so few words is his forte."

I'm in awe of authors who can do that.

From The Master by Colm Tóibín:

p.231 (large print edition):
"a moment of desperate hope ... it would offer the same moment of pure, sharp release as a flash of lightning offers to the brittle air in a dried-up landscape."

p.237, ibid: "And there was silence now in Kensington, not a sound in the house, except the sound, like a vague cry in the distance, of his own great solitude, and his memory working like grief, the past coming to him with its arm outstretched looking for comfort."The Master

From _The Master_ by Colm Toibin:
p.277 (large print edition):
"In their physiognomies, he saw a boyish rectitude guarding the rest of them
like a great stone wall."

From _The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel_ by David Wroblewski, p. 295:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"But when it came to knowing his thoughts, Edgar could be as opaque as a rock."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From _The Plague of Doves A Novel_ by Louise Erdrich:
p. 49:
"Admiration for Corwin's nerve rippled through the rows of children like a wind across a field."

"When I was young, I used to think the piano was my favorite instrument, ... But now, ... now I love the deep sound of the cello. Somehow it sounds most like life --sad and sweet and lost. Lonely. I always think that if the heart could sing, it would sound like a cello."
-p. 83, _The Space Between Us A Novel_ by Thrity Umrigar (2005)

"So this is how the heart breaks, Bhima thought. This is how cold, how delicate, how exquisite it feels, like the high-pitched violin on the classical music records that Serabai played."
-p. 41, _The Space Between Us A Novel_ by Thrity Umrigar (2005)

The day of battle dawned pink as the fresh-bitten thigh of a maiden.
- Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

Jim wrote: "The day of battle dawned pink as the fresh-bitten thigh of a maiden. - Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny"

Jim, let us know if you catch any other good similes from Zelazny. (See message #4.)

Here are a couple I liked from Janny Wurts:
"Their cast shadows flowed like spilled ink beneath them." -p.526-527, _To Ride Hell's Chasm_

"...female voice... shrill as a rusted gate hinge."
p. 133, ibid

I like similes describing the different sounds of people's voices. A voice is so abstract that the similes must be hard to think of.

Here's one from my files:
"Cecilia, as played by Knightley with stunning style, speaks rapidly in that upper-class accent that sounds like performance art. When I hear it, I despair that we Americans will ever approach such style with our words, which march out like baked potatoes." -Roger Ebert, in an online review of the movie "Atonement", 2007.
FROM: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs...

Whoops! Double posted that one. He has quite a few, but that one is my favorite. Most of them need to be read in context, though. Zelazny's contexts are usually a bit too complicated for easy quoting.

Yes, Jim, I can understand that about Zelazny.