A book can deliver these satisfactions only secondhand-but the ones that do it well tap into one of literature's great pleasures: A skilled writer, through words alone, can draw up scenes that awaken your perception and, in turn, your emotions.
I loved the way Nguyen wrote about Nicholson Baker's The Mezzanine, a novel in which a young office worker 'refuses to let his interest in the world become dulled' as he observes the mundane objects that surround him: escalators, straws, furniture.
[
add
]
[
|
|
...
]