As a reader, I love being transported somewhere else in the world. I love to feel the breeze in the air, I love to smell the fragrances that surround the characters I read about, and I love to see the entire scene around them open up before me. From the very beginning of The Prince of Tides, the reader is taken to the beautiful beaches of South Carolina. Every part of his description was spot on. I am from South Carolina and I have combed those same beaches many times in my life, I have also been there in my mind when life gets a little too stressful. As I was reading Conroy's words about South Carolina I felt like I was going home.
Not only did Conroy write a masterful description of South Carolina, he wrote these same kinds of descriptions throughout out the novel. I can only hope that whatever I write has the ability to take the reader on a journey with me from place to place. Sense of place is one of the main qualities, I believe, helps the reader with a suspension of disbelief. I think it is one of the greatest gifts a writer can give a reader.
Brittany, I agree with you about Conroy's extraordinary sense of place. He gives the Carolina Lowcountry star billing in his books. Perhaps, though, other places don't figure as prominently in other books and in our own writings because they aren't as distinctive or evocative. He gives us a great example of how to make a place shine, but maybe some of the places our stories are set in aren't as shiny to begin with. And that's okay.
ReplyDeleteLet me just add as a Lowcountry girl myself, that the region and Conroy's books are actually about more than just those beaches. It's those meandering gray rivers and bright green marshlands, those huge, overhanging oaks dripping with Spanish moss that seal the deal.
I love the photo of you and RileyAnne on the beach!
Isn't it interesting that when we read books about where were from it's like "going home," as you said? I find that whenever I'm deep in good Southern fiction, it' like I'm sinking deep into the story, becoming some kind of integral part of it, lifting my voice up with the multitude of other voices of readers and writers of the area. That sounds so sappy. I'm feeling a little poetic today. Forgive me. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree, he does do a great job of conveying a sense of place. He also does a great job of comparing and contrasting South Carolina (and the South) with New York City.
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