Sunday, March 18, 2012

Jhumpa Lahiri, Beth Kephart, and More Attention Given to the Sentence

I was happy to find Jhumpa Lahiri in The New York Times Sunday Review this weekend.  I wait, impatiently, for her books, her words.  When they come, I devour them quickly, then I come up for air, look around, wild-eyed, wish for more.  


The article (here) is about sentences.  And while I do believe my friend Beth Kephart was writing about sentences well before this article was published, I am pleased to see these thoughts extend from one of my favorite writers to another.  Because, as Lahiri says:


...it is a magical thing for a handful of words, artfully arranged, to stop time. To conjure a place, a person, a situation, in all its specificity and dimensions. To affect us and alter us, as profoundly as real people and things do.

The article is the first in a series called Draft which according to The Times will feature 'essays by grammarians, historians, linguists, journalists, novelists and others on the art of writing — from the comma to the tweet to the novel — and why a well-crafted sentence matters more than ever in the digital age.'

And now that I've read the article, I have learned why I must wait for Lahiri's words.  She waits for them too.  She takes care with them.  She does not rush.


13 comments:

  1. Your posts are so well done and very thought provoking. I will be checking out these articles for sure :)

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  2. Very excited to read these Drafts - we can always write better sentences. I love Jhumpa Lahiri too. Thanks!

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  3. So excited that you clued me in to this series! I, too, love love Lahiri's works and read them as soon as they are published.

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  4. Melissa, thanks so much for this post and the links. I am one of those readers who, when I read a sentence that blows me away, has to pause, look up, look around, and allow the awesomeness of it to soak in. I have never read Beth Kephart as I have just heard of her about a month ago. I follow her blog because even her posts cause me to stop and ponder. I will definitely have to get one of her books now. :)

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  5. Wow, I can see why you follow Jhumpa. Brilliant! I love your posts. They really are thought provoking and it makes me pause and think more about the art of writing.

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  6. I have not read this author's work, but I feel the same way about Annie Dillard's books. Her words are beautiful, too. And she makes me care about dragon fly larvae, for goodness sake! I think this is why I will always be a literary writer at heart. Though I may work on pacing and cliff-hangers, the books I love the most are ones I take my time reading, enjoying the nuances and the careful craft. This is important to remember when I'm in the writing/publishing rat race, for sure!

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  7. Very cool. I like this breakdown of sentences and the importance of each one. Makes me think...

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  8. I'm a slow writer too. Now I can just say I'm waiting for the right words :)

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  9. I do love sentences. I'd never thought about them like this. But maybe I need to more often. Because I want to write sentences like that.

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  10. Great post! Sentences are key, which is why I adore writers like Wallace Stegner and Marilynne Robinson. Thanks for this :)

    Sarah Allen
    (my creative writing blog)

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  11. I found your blog through Angie's (the interview post), and so glad I did. I just read through several of your posts and really enjoyed each of them - thanks for the beautiful writing.

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  12. She is one of my favorite authors - along with Beth Kephart - and I realize now that it’s because they both craft the most wonderfully artistic and meaningful sentences.

    I’ll be looking up this article now.

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  13. Thanks for the information about "Drafts", something I'll surely want to follow. I certainly plan to stop by more often here as well!

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