Friday Favorites

From Elizabeth Gilbert's fantastic novel "The Signature of All Things:"

She was her father's daughter. It was said of her from the beginning. For one thing, Alma Whittaker looked precisely like Henry: ginger of hair, florid of skin, small of mouth, wide of brow, abundant of nose. This was a rather unfortunate circumstance for Alma, although it would take her some years to realize it. Henry's face was far better suited to a grown man than to a little girl. Not that Henry himself objected to this state of affairs; Henry Whittaker enjoyed looking at his image wherever he might encounter it (in a mirror, in a portrait, in a child's face), so he always took satisfaction in Alma's appearance.

Immediately the reader pities the child, not just for inheriting her father's features that would look better on a grown man, but also for the kind of father she possibly has based on this initial introduction to Henry Whittaker.

The success of this opening paragraph is attributed to Gilbert's ability to connect to the reader's heart, always the Number One Goal in writing: connect to the reader's heart, not the mind.

On a personal note, I loved this book! At the risk of coming off sounding egotistical, which I hope I don't, when I read this book I couldn't help but feel as if it were written for me! This is the book I've always wanted to write and what a gift that Elizabeth Gilbert wrote it, for me! I love botany and art and traveling abroad. And I can relate to Alma Whittaker on many levels. So thank you, Elizabeth Gilbert, for a beautiful book!