Word count: 217 words
Reading time: Less than 1 minute
A great way to improve your writing skills is to emulate the work of others. That’s why, every week, I present a sentence that I’d happily imitate. Today’s comes from Anakana Schofield.
It’s hard to believe that Malarky is a first novel. Funny, and written in an utterly distinctive style, the book tells the story of a feisty Irish farm woman who has lost her husband to a heart attack and her son, to war in Afghanistan. The author has a hugely comfortable voice. I could practically imagine sitting beside her and having her regale me with her woes.
She also gave me my sentence for the week:
This fella today is under the rubble that’s himself, inebriated against it all, even a strange woman mopping him up on the bus.
In the character’s description of cleaning up after a drunk on the bus, don’t you hear the Irish accent in the phrase, “under the rubble that’s himself”? So evocative. I also like the turn of phrase “mopping him up.”
Funny and harsh, dark and bright, Malarky is a quick, rewarding read.
