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  • The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."
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« TEV GIVEAWAY (& UPDATE): HARRY, REVISED | Main | DEPARTURES »

March 14, 2008

LIBRARY JOURNAL SPEAKS

How wonderful!  On the day of a Harry, Revised giveaway, Library Journal speaks with a starred review:

Sarvas, writer of the highly praised literary blog, The Elegant Variation, has written a brilliantly funny and heart-wrenching first novel about one man's struggle to face the truth. Harry Rent, middle-aged, well-to-do, and prone to comical daydreaming, has recently lost his beautiful and practically perfect wife, Anna. Unable to get in touch with his grief, he becomes involved in the lives of two waitresses, Molly and Lucille, at the Cafe Retro. He has a crush on the young, hip, and intellectual Molly and tries to impress her by rescuing the lumbering Lucille from her pathetic life of ingrown toenails, unpaid bills, and jailed offspring. But each act of kindness produces its own set of problems for Harry, and he becomes increasingly mired in a life of dishonesty and fantasy. Gradually, his memories of his life with Anna begin rising to the surface, bringing with them both pain and enlightenment. Harry Rent is of the same ilk as Walter Mitty and Rabbit Angstrom: deeply flawed, likable, and hilariously, touchingly memorable. Highly recommended for all fiction collections.

Posted by TEV at 04:27 PM in Harry, Revised |

Comments

What a marvelous review, Mark! Congrats!

Posted by:CAAF | March 14, 2008 at 05:21 PM

Super. Wonderful review!

Posted by:John Shannon | March 14, 2008 at 06:54 PM

That's terrific, Mark.

Librarians won't say this because they like us to think they make very deliberative purchasing choices, but at some libraries "starred" and/or "Highly recommended" in the last line is THE signal to buy. I had a friend who said that at his library that was the first thing they looked at, not really caring what the review actually said.

But what LJ said was great. Mazel tov!

Posted by:Richard | March 15, 2008 at 06:33 PM

Congratulations! This is awesome...

Posted by:Lesley-Ann Brown | March 16, 2008 at 10:45 AM

Congratulations! This is awesome...

Posted by:Lesley-Ann Brown | March 16, 2008 at 10:46 AM

Bravo, bravo, bravo!

Posted by:daniel olivas | March 17, 2008 at 07:59 AM

Very exciting. Just placed my pre-order!

Posted by:GM | March 18, 2008 at 06:40 AM

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THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

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