Reading time: Less than 1 minute
A great way to improve your writing is to emulate the work of others. That’s why, every week, I present a sentence that I’d happily imitate. I comment today on a sentence written by Jeremy Denk.
Is it because my son is studying to become an opera singer that I have an inordinate interest in stories about success (or failure) in the fine arts?
A brief remembrance, by American pianist Jeremy Denk, caught my eye in the October 14/13 New Yorker. It’s a charmingly written story, even if it’s a bit frightening about the prospects of artistic survival. Headlined, “Piano Man,” it recounts the author’s uncomfortable experience recording a classical-music-meets-pop combo for a Japanese recording company.
Describing the pain of his early days in New York City, Denk writes:
My first few months in the city were marked by financial panic and a deep nostalgia for closets.
This made me laugh out loud! Of course someone from the Midwest would find the constraints of space in New York very limiting. But then I had another thought. Was he, perhaps, gay? Yes, it turns out he is. So, in addition to making a joke, he’s also enjoying a play on words.
I love the way the New Yorker so frequently makes me laugh.