Reading time: Less than 1 minute
I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of similes from author Ling Ma…
Chinese American novelist Ling Ma (pictured above) won a 2018 Kirkus Prize for her first novel Severence. Her work was also listed as a New York Times Notable Book of 2018 and shortlisted for the 2019 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award.
But what really drew me to the novel was that it was a pandemic tale, which seemed eerily appropriate in the age of Covid. Even more appealing? It was said to be what sounded like an incongruous blend of styles: partially post-apocalyptic horror, and partially office satire. (That said, I hadn’t counted on the sci-fi edge, which I found a bit off-putting as that genre rarely appeals to me.)
Still, Ling Ma has a terrific eye and ear for figurative language. Here are my favourite examples:
- Our bodies curled inward, away from each other, dry leaves at the end of summer.
- The sound of my loud, nervous laugh, like gargling gravel, was a social liability.
- To cool down, I’d skim through the air-conditioned lobby of a hotel or museum or department store, like a swimmer taking a quick, splashy lap, slipping past doormen, salesgirls, concierges, docents, security guards before bursting back outside.
- The carpeting was so plush and springy that I felt as if I were on another planet, one with weaker gravitational pull.
- I burst out crying. The sobs heaved out almost euphorically, like air bubbles in seltzer water, that first crisp sip, as I gripped the sides of the sink, doubling over.
- They were performing their Americanness, perfecting it to a gleaming hard veneer to shield over their Chinese inner selves.
- You couldn’t even see the water beneath all the garbage, but standing on the steps, you could hear it, like an enormous animal lapping thirstily.
An earlier version of this post first appeared on my blog on Sept. 10/20.
[Photo credit: kellywritershouse. Cropped. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.]
