Father Issues
New Yorker native Marina Thwaite is a writer. Her father, Murray, is a noted literary critic. That the two figures would tend toward inevitable irregularly spaced collisions is as predictable as the collisions between a linebacker and a quarterback. Marina’s passive aggressive stance toward fatherly expectations is most memorably encapsulated by her metaphorically rich descriptive characterization:
“He’s like the monster that ate Manhattan, he thinks it’s all, always, all about him.”
Ludovic’s Technique
Daughter is not the only person who forms a strong opinion of Murray Thwaite. The truth is that some of the most memorable figurative imagery is devoted to characterizing the controversial figure. And, for that matter, his daughter And even, on occasion, the relationship daughter has with father. For a Ludovic Seeley, an editor fresh into New York from Down Under, it is another nickname for Australia that stimulates the metaphor:
“…Murray Thwaite is the Wizard of Oz, a tiny, pointless man roaring behind a curtain.”
Metaphor’s Impressive Capacity for Efficiency
One particularly well-constructed use of metaphor conveys much in an almost impossibly economic manner. With just a few words carefully chosen for their precise meaning, the writer conveys information about New York City apartments in the heat of the urban jungle that subtly covers size, climate and the capacity for even the excitement of the Big Apple to turn sour:
“…the apartment felt hotter, if possible, as if it were a repository for the sticky stillness, a deliberate storage trunk for misery.”
A Somber Simile
The last sixty or so pages of the novel separate the events of the narrative between the pre-911 America and the post-911 America. Much of it is focused on that moment in time when both Americans co-existed. One character who isn’t near ground zero in New York asks another who is what it smells like in the aftermath of the disaster. His answer is prosaic and utilitarian: burning dust and fuel. It is the person who is not there who engages the language of metaphor:
“But it’s going to smell like death, isn’t? Soon, if it doesn’t already? A great big grave like that. It’s going to smell like death.”
Marina gets Married
Not to spoil anything, but Marina does wind up getting married. Marina is described as an “it” girl which means, of course, that every eye is immediately drawn to her as soon as she enters a room. That’s the definition of “it.” As one might suspect, such a girl would be especially radiant on her wedding day and Marina comes through:
“Her smile, one guest observed, was like a second in the glorious late afternoon.”
Now that's some realistic society page mastery of English right there.
