Snippets

I absolutely love Pat Conroy's book, The Prince of Tides, and I've been bursting to talk about it. Conroy has amazing description, and I feel like I could meet his characters on the street and strike up a conversation with them. He is truly inspirational. Here is one such description (of a funeral make-up artist) that blows my mind every time I read it:

"He was tall and thin and had a complexion like goat cheese left on the table too long. The funeral parlor smelled like dead flowers and unanswered prayers. When he wished us a good day, his voice was reptilian and unctuous and you knew he was only truly comfortable in the presence of the dead. He looked as if he had died two or three times himself in order to appreciate better the subtleties of his vocation. Winthrop Ogletree had the face of an unlucky vampire who never received an adequate portion of blood."

Wow! Someday, I will write like that. :)

I also find it interesting (and fun) that the main character is most passionate when he talks about books that he loves. "Alone, the greatest writers would sit with me and, in their own voices, tell me everything there was to know about the world," he says. How true that is. And I deeply appreciate what this book continues to teach me about life - the stubborn and sometimes irrational love of family, the bonding between lovers, the brutality of the world, the perseverance through terrible times, and undying faith. I could read this book fifty times and not be sick of it!