Running for Your Life: If the Greats Were With Us Thursday

What do you do for openers, Patrick White (1912-1990)? If you’re interested in one of the truly gifted novelists, get a load of these first words. With a shoutout to John Blanton who turned me on to the power of Patrick’s prose.

The old woman’s head was barely fretting against the pillow. She could have moaned slightly.
        The Eye of the Storm

“There is a man here, miss, asking for your uncle,” said Rose.
And stood breathing.
        Voss

As the carriage drew back from Circular Wharf, Mr. Stafford Merivale tapped the back of his wife’s hand and remarked that they had done their duty.
        Fringe of Leaves

And my favorite:

A cart drove between the two big stringybarks and stopped. These were the dominant trees in that part of the bush, rising above the involved scrub with the simplicity of true grandeur. So the cart stopped, grazing the hairy side of a tree, and the horse, shaggy and stolid as the tree, sighed and took root.
        Tree of Man

Next: Running for Your Life: Thurber!