Blown Away by a Paragraph in a Review
I remember writing a paper about a Harold Pinter play. My prof said he was blown away by the premise, that Pinter was putting the audience on trial. The only thing I remember about the play–other than the lesson about how an author can interact with audience–is the line, “You daft prat.” I’ve never been able to use the line in real life. Not because I haven’t been around daft prats, but because none of them would have understood that label.
Anyhow, imagine my elation when Robin Jeffrey, @thesidekick, said something quite similar about my novel Cold Quiet Country. Not that I’m a daft prat, but that I’m putting the audience on trial. She said it better than I did in my paper, and it’s fascinating for me to see a sharp mind analyse my work and extract from it something I figured might only work subconsciously, if at all. Her take on the book was just a delight to read. Here’s the best sentence of analysis about Cold Quiet Country I’ve ever read. She flat-out nails what I was trying to do:
This is the subtle beauty of Lindemuth’s work: in addressing crimes that are so often willfully ignored by society in such a way, the reader is forced to face head on their own complicity, by their silence, in such acts.
How she arrives at this power-sentence is worth your read. More than a discussion of Cold Quiet Country, Robin is addressing what first person narration is capable of arousing in a reader. Spot on.
I’ve been following Robin’s blog posts for a few months now. Her posts are always insightful and sharp. Check out her blog and become a regular…
