As I neglect my own novel and tear through the stack of books that have been patiently waiting to be read, I find that I've spent a great deal of my weekend with Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor.It was only a few weeks ago I asked if young writers could do things we older writers could not and if older writers brought some hard-earned humanity to the work that might not occur to a younger person.
Ken Bruen, as might be expected, gives us an example of something that probably could have been written by someone in their 20's or early 30's, but most likely would not. It's from Priest, a novel so beautiful it hurts.
"Not having children is a burden you don't even know you carry. You shrug it off, go 'I'd be a lousy parent,' or mutter about the loss of freedom. But somewhere deep in the treacherous human psyche is the ache of loss. The worst kind of pain, to miss something you never had, and worse, never will. The heart wants what it will never hold."
It's writing like this that keeps sending me back to my own work, looking for the stark true heart of the story.
It is a high bar to be sure, but dreaming is not only for the young.
1 comment:
I think the publishers should start putting a little Kleenex box picture in the corner of the pages before lines like that.
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