Alan's Reviews > State of Grace

5 stars may be a little high for this first novel, it is confusing and difficult, but I’m in love with her beautiful prose and its lovely oddities. Quotes:

The leopard shuts its eyes, deep in an animal music.

Galloping horseless toward her life, which is up past the hill, in the parsonage, in the winding halls, in the rooms gone to storage, in this silence, this requirement, this breeding place of dreams..

Her mouth had opened into a crooked O. Her teeth lay across it like tiny fishes waiting to be hatched. The Child had heard of this. Fishes born in their mothers' mouths, fleeing back there when in danger. The woman's mouth had closed with a moist sea sound.

I can’t understand why God made every tiny snowflake different and all these men the same.

I walk through an arc of bougainvillaea. The sky is bloody with flowers. The petals on the ground are as delicate as rice paper. I try not to step on them. I make every effort to avoid the sound of breakage.