Reading time: About 1 minute
I like to share interesting pieces of figurative language I encounter in my reading. I write today about a series of similes and metaphors by Sameer Pandya….
A professor of creative writing and Asian American literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Sameer Pandya is also the author of the novel, Members Only.
Although told in a mainly light-hearted way, the story is really about invisibility and the impact of racism through micro-aggressions. Like Pandya himself, the protagonist is an Indian-American professor at a California university.
A friend of mine picked up the book, by chance, at a local library and then recommended it to me. While enjoying the story, I was also impressed by the author’s use of figurative language. Here are my favourite examples:
- The room was completely silent. We could hear the cicadian murmur of kids finishing up at the pool outside.
- On the station platform, with sweat trickling down my legs, my wool slacks seemed to be growing fangs.
- She had long fingers, longlegs tanned amber, and an exquisitely long neck; she looked like a tropical heron.
- The deep wrinkles in her face looked like the map of a country I’d like to visit.