That the person they had once been

[breathedout]

I knew how easily it could happen, the past at hand, like the helpless cognitive slip of an optical illusion. The tone of a day linked to some particular item: my mother's chiffon scarf, the humidity of a cut pumpkin. Certain patterns of shade. Even the flash of sunlight on the hood of a white car could cause a momentary ripple in me, allowing a slim space of return. I'd seen old Yardley slickers—the makeup now just a waxy crumble—sell for almost one hundred dollars on the Internet. So grown women could smell it again, that chemical, flowery fug. That's how badly people wanted it—to know that their lives had happened, that the person they once had been still existed inside of them.

—Emma Cline, from The Girls

Comments

[eccentric_hat]

the humidity of a cut pumpkin

I almost want to forget about the rest of the passage and just focus on that one detail for a while. If I had tried to write this I would have been stuck on phrases like "the [adjective] smell of..." but "humidity" is perfect.

[breathedout]

The savoring of extremely well-observed little details like this is one of the real delights of this book, I feel. There's nothing particularly surprising about the way the events unfold (especially if you're at all familiar with the history of the Manson Family), but the careful attention that Cline pays to her narrator's experience creates both a visceral world and a lot of narrative tension.

[nyctanthes]

Perfect timing for this lovely passage. I'm working on something related to this, and this is a good signpost/reminder to pin up in the notes section of Scrivener...

Glad to see you back and posting again, even if life is crazy! (House renos are THE WORST). But, hopefully, one day they are over.

[breathedout]

Haha, that is sometimes the best thing one can say about renovation projects: one day, they will be over. Thanks for reminding me of that truth.

And I'm so glad this passage resonated for you & might prove a useful writing note! Always lovely when that kind of synchronicity happens.