Monday, January 20, 2003
finished orland outland's different people in a marathon I-can't-put-this-down reading session lasting until 330am saturday morning. stellar, beautiful, and probably the best new novel I've read in the last 12 months. yes, you have a fair idea of how the story's going to resolve itself before you get there - but what you don't know is how the protagonists are getting there, and when. so the plot's compelling, as are the main characters. but the star here is the sheer quality of outland's writing, something I'd never seen of him before in his previous (albeit much more comic, lighthearted) fiction. take, for instance, this paragraph:
"Even in these moments, when we hold our breath in amazement, our minds work on. The process of turning chemicals into words is suspended for a delicious moment and we're free from, if not the burden of consciousness, at least the burden of carrying that burden by ourselves. They say there are always two, the lover and the loved, that what goes on in one mind is not what goes on in the other's, but in a process of magic or grace or coincidence; in that moment there was one feeling in both their minds, one word that came to both their minds to sum it up: Finally."
outland, obviously, is not the most economical writer; after my own heart, he embellishes his language (but never unnecessarily, never making it flowery for its own sake) like a painter adding his own, unique touches to his work. he has such a knack for this type of storytelling, it's amazing to me that it's taken him this long to do so (his previous novel, every man for himself, was a prototypical vaguely-cheesy kensington title; prior to that he wrote some a series of mysteries and some nonfiction). his words simply flow, effortlessly, nearly magically, from his pen (I prefer to assume that most writers of good fiction still compose initially by hand, even as I recognize the picture as perhaps outdated for some). different people is the gold standard, the one to beat. a stunning achievement, and worthy of every plaudit that gets thrown at it.
"Even in these moments, when we hold our breath in amazement, our minds work on. The process of turning chemicals into words is suspended for a delicious moment and we're free from, if not the burden of consciousness, at least the burden of carrying that burden by ourselves. They say there are always two, the lover and the loved, that what goes on in one mind is not what goes on in the other's, but in a process of magic or grace or coincidence; in that moment there was one feeling in both their minds, one word that came to both their minds to sum it up: Finally."
outland, obviously, is not the most economical writer; after my own heart, he embellishes his language (but never unnecessarily, never making it flowery for its own sake) like a painter adding his own, unique touches to his work. he has such a knack for this type of storytelling, it's amazing to me that it's taken him this long to do so (his previous novel, every man for himself, was a prototypical vaguely-cheesy kensington title; prior to that he wrote some a series of mysteries and some nonfiction). his words simply flow, effortlessly, nearly magically, from his pen (I prefer to assume that most writers of good fiction still compose initially by hand, even as I recognize the picture as perhaps outdated for some). different people is the gold standard, the one to beat. a stunning achievement, and worthy of every plaudit that gets thrown at it.
# posted by Thomas : 3:14 PM
