Regular readers will remember this feature, (with a nod to Mark Doty’s blog). The sentence that caught my attention today is from a book I’m wasn’t too crazy about, called Seating Arrangements, by Maggie Shipstead. I didn’t finish the book, but for some reason I loved this little sequence.
“You ought to go to law school,” Oatsie said decisively, “You’d make a wonderful lawyer. You have beautiful hair.”
“Thank you,” Livia said. When she was old, she wanted to be like Oatsie: imperious, brusque, and given to non sequitur.
* * *
This seems a goal worth working towards. The photo, from TwistedSifter (a very unique selection of pics), is a good match, including the politically incorrect cigarette. At the moment, I’m rereading Terms of Endearment, and enjoying another aging, imperious, impossible older woman, Aurora Greenway. Why is it characters you’d never want to interact with in real life are so engaging in novels?
Things I have enjoyed recently from your blog include Larry’s comment on modern-day stockmen, the fact that your poem won an award (and the poem itself! Congratulations!), and the last sentence of today’s…that says it so well!
Thanks, Diane, so good to hear from you.