It's such a pleasure when you find the perfect book. Amazingly that perfection varies and changes--if not day to day, at least year to year. I've been puzzling about reading perfection ever since I picked up SMILA'S SENSE OF SNOW several years ago now. This month I read DYING IN THE CITY OF FLOWERS by Victoria Edwards Tester. It's a small book, and it does not seem to fit a genre. I have finally decided my excitement in little books is a purely visceral reaction to the words. This first person account about a rather ignorant woman whose child is stolen by her no account husband and her Peruvian mother in law. So why did I become attached to her? Why did I wait eagerly to pick up that book in every spare moment? Why did I lose sleep over her? I don't know. I was rooting for Viola's success, and I fell in love with her and her child. And the only reason I can almost define is the pure beauty of the lyricism, the rhythm of the sentences.
Do you have books that you just love? Do you want to share the authors and titles with us? Can you explain why you love a book? Is it the story? The character? The joy of the reading?
Friday, August 17, 2007
Finding a good book
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1 comments:
Victoria Edwards Tester is a facinating writer...but that's not why you fell in love with "Viola." That's pretty much a true story ... it's Tester's story. She's a facinating woman. She has several volumes of poetry out that bring me to tears and have brought me more laugh out loud "images" than almost anything I have ever read. I hope you will look for them. As a painter, this woman has been my most favorite muse for many years now.
Sincerely, LL Morris
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