What Little Gripes have you Found while Reading a Great Book?
RachelsFiction.com
Last night, I started a book by a stellar author whose books I love Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout. This particular novel fits into two loosely connected series: characters from one appear in and affect the other.
Strout is so enjoyable because her characters are ordinary people without the attention-grabbing gimmicks of celebrity, enormous wealth and/or power, unusual beauty, etc. Instead, they have the problems all of us have; they’re realistic, human, experiencing the ups and downs of so many share. They demonstrate the heroism found in making it through ordinary life, just living day-by-day.
I was happy a new book by this author was available, looked forward to the read, and am enjoying it. I would recommend the book whole-heartedly.
But there’s one little niggling glitch in the writing. Each time it came up, that glitch paused my reading and so my enjoyment in the story. It might not be noticeable to anyone else.
The issue is: to my mind, gratuitous use of the indefinite article “a” and often adding a few more words that could be avoided—though sometimes a few additional words would emphasize uniqueness of that particular sensation or happening. (A uniqueness?)
Examples of the issue are:
- “Her eyes were watching (another character) with a keenness,” instead of “…watching keenly.”
- “…there was a silence”, instead of “…there was silence.”
- “…felt a pain shoot through…,” instead of “…felt pain shoot through…”
Now, if the keenness, or the silence, or the pain were in some way remarkable and was so described as such, it would make sense to me, but that’s not the case. Again, I try to ignore that niggling little “a” just as when a fond friend goes “uhm” a lot, but each time one hits, my mind drops a bit of the thread of the tale.
Is my gripe reasonable? Are there are any other little mannerisms from writers that nag at you, reasonable or otherwise, in a book you’re truly enjoying?
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