The Good Stuff
Mar. 23rd, 2006 01:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
f4f3The eponymous hero of "Laidlaw" by William McIlvanney, a book I like a lot, is a Glasgow cop, who keeps books stashed in his office desk like another detective might keep whisky, as a support when he's near despair.
I don't, so I had to go on line to look for the text of Chandler's "The Lady in the Lake". I'd quoted from it the other day, and I wanted to read the whole scene again.
All I found was the first two scenes, but there's a paragraph in it describing an incidental character who has no other appearance in the book, but who Chandler nails in two sentences. I wish I could write like this:
"The little blonde at the PBX cocked a shell-like ear and smiled a small fluffy smile. She looked playful and eager, but not quite sure of herself, like a new kitten in a house where they don't care much about kittens."
I don't, so I had to go on line to look for the text of Chandler's "The Lady in the Lake". I'd quoted from it the other day, and I wanted to read the whole scene again.
All I found was the first two scenes, but there's a paragraph in it describing an incidental character who has no other appearance in the book, but who Chandler nails in two sentences. I wish I could write like this:
"The little blonde at the PBX cocked a shell-like ear and smiled a small fluffy smile. She looked playful and eager, but not quite sure of herself, like a new kitten in a house where they don't care much about kittens."
