Bellezza and Tom are discussing Little, Big by John Crowley this month. A little on the late side, I decided to join in as the title has been on my to-be-read radar for years. And years. But the oddest things is going on with me. Something that I don't ever remember happening before except with very poorly constructed novels. And this is not one of those by any stretch. I can't match my own reading rhythms with the cadence of the author's language here. My reading pace has picked up now at about the halfway point but it was slow-going at first. I can look at the passages and objectively see no reason for the disconnect.
“Like a sun: but a small sun, which she had within her, warming her from the inside out. She was conscious of a feeling she had had before, a sense that she was looking at him, and at all of them, from some far way off, or from a great height. There had been a time when she seemed to herself to be snug, and small, within the large house of Smokey, a safe inhabitant, room to run in yet never leave his encompassment. Now she oftener felt otherwise: over time it was he who seemed to have become a mouse within the house of her.”
True that the book is a comma convention but shouldn't that actually dictate cadence, the pauses in thought, emphases? Are those pauses so frequent that the text is way out of sync with my personal preference in reading speed? Is this a deliberately paced novel that is pushing back against a greedy consumer? What do you think? Have you had this experience with this or other books?
And on a more practical note, a topic inspired by a love of spring cleaning and the current rash of blog renovations, I have realized that my blog rolls here are terribly out of date. They don't include everyone I now read, but do include some who are not blogging anymore or whom I have traveled away from down a different reading path. Emily and the valued Evening All Afternoon will remain for both sentimental and mind-blowing content reasons despite her long absence among us. The rest I will tidy. But I would appreciate your help too. Who am I missing? Do you read here and read like me but don't see yourself in the blog roll? Is there someone you know I would enjoy?
And Happy Mother's Day to all, mothers and motherers alike.