The Shades of Love

I've been wanting to share this for a week. Wasn't sure how to go about it. So, I'll just spit it out.

Here's Terry's Tip for Feb. 27. I recently finished reading three great books ... The Given Day by Dennis Lehane and The Road by Cormack McCarthy.

Dennis Lehane wrote Mystic River. I started that book (my son, Matt, loves Lehane), but the language was tough to take.

I was amazed by The Given Day. It's a wonderful story, epic in proportion, intimate in family.

But what shocked me was the lyricism of Lehane's writing. His wonderful turn of phrases, sparkling word pictures. It reads like the best Steinbeck. But I loved how he intertwined smells into his scene tapestries. Smells ... something I ignore too frequently in my scenes. But how strong, and powerful and seductive are smells.

The Given Day is a rough story in spots, Lehane is gritty, but I didn't want it to end.

The Road is absolutely mind-blowing. McCarthy has a style like none other I've ever seen. No chapters, for one. He creates a foreign, forbidding world and enchants you into its center. Two characters you ache for. That's all I can tell you without giving too much away. It's spectacular.

The third book? Yesterday I finished reading The Shack. Wow! What a revelation. My wife got it from the library and we all read it before it was due back. Now, I've got to go out and buy myself a copy. There's just too much in there to absorb, and remember, in just one reading. Fascinating.

Odd thing ... all three books are about love. Expectations of love in The Given Day. Responsibilities of love in The Road. And the gift of love in The Shack.

It's all love. Two are enslaving. One is freeing. We all have a choice which one, or two, or three we would like in our lives.

Ciao.


Pretty cool, this writing stuff.