Good Book Weather.....

It's official.....we now have wind chill that makes outside feel like we are living in a sub-zero climate. Ugh. I don't mind cold weather, and the snow is lovely.....it's the wind I can do without.  A good day to do some quilting and then finish a very good book.

I've read Pat Conroy's novels before and am now finishing South of Broad. It's an excellent read and an interesting story about friendships spanning two decades and set in the beautiful city of Charleston.

But what I enjoy most is Conroy's mastery of the language. His phrases.....his descriptions....the words he chooses to use. He seems to assume that his readers will enjoy stretching their vocabularies....and perhaps grabbing a dictionary. It struck me on page 190 that he had such a purposeful choice of every single word.....a perfect word that exactly fit the situation. I have to wonder how many re-writes before he was satisfied?

Reading "...their languorous drift...", "...disseminating the stereotype." "...the portion of darkness he carries inside, like a rumor of bad weather." "...faintly liturgical smell....", "...responses are brilliant and disputatious..." (disputatious!)

Later in the novel he states "The West is both a great thirst and a dry, weatherless curiosity." And describing a run down hotel in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco he colors it well..."It smells of the kind of mold that grows on expensive cheeses, but also of a darker variety that has metastasized in dampness and air shafts and crawl spaces, untouched by disinfectants."

I enter this book's world every time I pick it up. And even though much of the story is tinged with sadness it is a great read. So much to think about, to digest.

Disputatious.......love it.