Monday, June 16, 2008

Seeing It

Watch out, I've been reading again. This time it's Liberating Paris, by Linda Bloodworth Thomason.

The thing about Thomason's story that just knocks me over is how visual it is. That makes sense, her being a TV writer and all. (She developed Designing Women and Evening Shade.) But still, could you do a better job of showing how unprepared a character is for grief than by having him blow his nose into a scarf he found in the back seat of his car? Could you paint someone as low rent in a better way than by having him shove little sandwiches and cookies into his pockets and then fill a thermos with punch at a funeral buffet?

I'm thinking not.

I haven't finished the book yet, so I don't know what I think of it overall. I do know that I learn something about writing every time I read another book. I do know that Thomason's taught me a lot already by the way she shows me the world she's describing.

I LOVE seeing the world through writer's eyes.

6 comments:

Jess said...

I love your book recommendations, even though I don't always keep up with them.

Have you ever read Edwidge Danticat? I'm reading Breath, Eyes, Memory. Its really good.... Cool to be in NY while I read it, too.

Go Mama said...

I love how you soak up knowledge, craft, not just stories, from the authors you read.

Takes one to know one.

Michelle O'Neil said...

Always studying Jerri. I love that about you.

Deb Shucka said...

I'm with you there, dear one. Borrowing other writers' eyes definitely makes the world a bigger and brighter place. That would include yours as well.

Carrie Wilson Link said...

Ditto everyone - I can't "just read" anymore!

Amber said...

...oaky, maybe it's my headache. But I first read that title as "Liberating PENIS". I wondered what the hell you were into. LOL! (wonder what you would learn from that?)

:)