A face that never fell apart
by CarolineFrom Duplicate Keys by Jane Smiley:
She had Alice’s favorite face, pale, peaceful, and good, unglamorous, a face that never fell apart with animation like Alice’s own, a face that Alice was used to staring at and analyzing, wondering if Susan was pretty or beautiful, wondering if the fascination of it came from Susan or from herself.
I like when fiction allows a place for people to observe their friends and acquaintances for its own sake.
When I was in school, a beloved professor had us read two novels in succession. The first was beautiful and inward-looking, with a shifting narrative perspective that showed us each character’s thoughts in first-person depth. The second told a similar story but in strict third person. Suddenly, we learned how people’s personalities were based on how they looked, what they wore: A woman with short hair had certain traits, for instance. Since then, I’ve tried to pay attention to how writers use observations to draw their characters. I like how Alice looks at Susan with a loving, attentive eye borne of old friendship.
Duplicate Keys has a lot of promise so far (I’ve barely started it) — to be simplistic, it reminds me of the plot of the Big Chill. There are a lot of main characters, all different but all very trusting in one another at first glance, and all brought together by a traumatic death. We’ll see!
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