Vignette

I recently read two books by Abigail Thomas: Safekeeping: Some True Stories from a Life and What Comes Next and How to Like It: A Memoir. Both are memoir, and both are told in vignette. A vignette is a brief, evocative, descriptive moment, and Thomas uses this to brilliant effect.These books are not told in strict chronological order. They are ordered the way that memory is ordered, with one thought or image leading to another. The books are also often very funny and utterly moving, and I think that is because the spare style leads to such keen observations. The vignettes are mostly quite short, which kept me turning the pages as I told myself, "Just one more" and "Just one more."

Thomas's books reminded me of two others: A Step from Heaven by An Na and Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. Na's book is also told in vignette, and the result is like diving into a lyrical dream. It is the closest that prose ever gets to poetry, which is what Out of the Dust is. Each moment is discrete. Out of the Dust is the most successful verse novel I've read, with the exception of Spoon River Anthology, because it resists the pull of plot that is so essential to the prose novel. They simply let the poems exist independently until they add up to the whole.

Anyway! I highly recommend all of these--add them to your TBR pile. And you writers out there: Consider experimenting with vignette.