The Oxford American Dictionary defines this beautiful sounding word as
like prose; lacking poetic beauty.
unromantic; dull; comonplace.
The top three definitions of prose are
the ordinary form of the written or spoken language
a passage of prose
a tedious speech or conversation
A prosaist is either
a prose writer; or
a prosaic person
If someone calls you a prosaist, it could go either way. Writers [...]
The Country Life, published in 1997, is Rachel Cusk’s third novel. She is spacing them out like children–one every two years. As opposed to The Temporary, the writing is solid throughout, continuously propelling the reader forward. The first sentence tells you that the narrator is supposed to take the four o’clock train from Charing Cross to Buckley. The author then [...]
I used to copy down favorite passages in a notebook. A small five by seven three-ring binder. I could move the pages around, organize them. I haven’t written in it in a while. I’m not sure why. Maybe too busy writing myself. Anyway, I was looking through it today to see if what mattered before still did. And most [...]
One of my favorite poems is “Otherwise” by Jane Kenyon. It begins
“I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise.”
For the complete poem, please go to http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/050.html.
“Otherwise” first appeared in Harvard Magazine and was then published in 1993 in Constance. Jane Kenyon was born in 1947, and she died in 1995 after a fifteen-month battle [...]
With her first novel, Saving Agnes, Rachel Cusk laid the foundation for her writing life. The Temporary is her second novel. It was published in 1995, two years after her first. And I see improvement. The author is using fewer words, and in places, she goes deep. Overall, though, the writing is uneven. Here are some highlights:
Waking, Ralph thought, ”The hands pointing [...]
In July, I read Arlington Park and discovered a writer new to me–Rachel Cusk. She was born in Canada in 1967, grew up in Los Angeles, and now lives in England. Arlington Park is her most recent novel. Although I thought it was slightly brusque in its movement between characters and slightly haphazard in its structure, [...]
September 22, 2008–the autumnal equinox–fall at last. My favorite season.
And it felt like fall this morning. Canada geese flying over. The first leaves changing color.
It’s no surprise that in two of my all-time favorite books, the authors write of fall.
In Journal of a Solitude, May Sarton wrote of a September day, “The sun is out. I woke [...]
At the end of The Hours, in the Acknowledgments, Michael Cunningham thanks Three Lives and Company for being in existence. He describes this bookstore as ”…a sanctuary and, to me, the center of the universe. It has for some time been the most reliable place to go when I need to remember why novels are still worth [...]
Niagara Falls All Over Again (published in 2001) is a well-crafted novel written by Elizabeth McCracken. In the space of two and a half pages, the author uses several techniques to pull the reader into the story.
Early in the novel, the author describes an accident as it is occuring, but she suspends the action before the impact.
Mose waits: “I waited for her [...]
Last Friday night, at Leon Coverson Stadium in Greenville, Georgia, the Patriots faced the Cougars. It was the red and black against the blue and white. At the start of the game, the sun lingered behind a cloud. A few minutes later, smoke from the concession stand floated over the field. After four long quarters, the mighty Brookstone Cougars emerged victorious.
photographs courtesy of [...]
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