Curiosity’s the reason for this particular post. I really would like to know what others think about a style of writing I can’t stand.
Actually, that’s too harsh. I may not like it, but I’m not about to assemble the villagers, pitchforks and flaming torches to go hunting Markus Zusak down to that burning windmill on the hill. He doesn’t deserve that.
But I’ve just finished reading The Book Thief and on almost every page I came across a sentence using words and phrases that pulled me right out of the story and made me think only of the writing. Instead of focussing on the characters and what was happening to them, all my attention went to such constructions as:
Breath collapsed from Schmeikel’s mouth. It collapsed down his throat.
A single word leaned against the girl.
Fingermarks clutched the book.
A patch of voice escaped his mouth.
And my (least) favourite:
Her nerves licked her palms.
In every single case, I knew what was meant. But in every single case, it also stopped the flow of the flow of the story. I was out of the book, not in it. And I know as I write this that people could come back with a list of authors recognised first and foremost for their ‘style’: Hemingway, Raymond Chandler, Annie Proulx, Mervyn Peake…
So I suppose it all comes down to personal taste. (Doesn’t everything?) But I’d have liked The Book Thief an awful lot more if Markus Zusak had toned down the verbal gymnastics.
I do like his website, though.
