Book 3 - Elizabeth Smart "By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept"

[jazzy_dave]

Elizabeth Smart "By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept" (Flamingo)




A prose poem of exquisite beauty, a tale of the overwhelming love of an intelligent, articulate woman for a man unworthy of her, a long-drawn-out howl in the service of the idea that love can change the world for the better while simultaneously causing grief and mayhem wherever it goes. This is a flawless work, eloquent and moving, and in some ways profoundly disturbing. Smart's writing is like fire dancing and flickering - beautiful and terrible in equal measure. Although those readers who like the simpleton A-to-B plotting that dominates so much of modern literature will perhaps find nothing here to like this is a hugely impressive achievement.

English has such a massive vocabulary and flexibility to it yet there are few writers who take advantage of that to produce something that stretches the language to breaking point in the service of communicating depth and truth of experience. Anyone who loves language, who loves writing, who loves the idea that words on the page can be more than simple fireside tales writ large, should be thanking whatever deity they believe in every day that people like Elizabeth Smart chose to enter the ring and fight hard to put words on the page. Highly recommended, and a short read you can re-read with unrivaled pleasure.

Comments

[cmcmck]

That cover's a really famous photograph.