The best books are the ones that end up haunting me; the stories that visit me in the night, or in one of those vacant day-time moments; fiction that exposes me to my place in some broader circumstance.
The best books are like an ember that warms my inside as the story evolves from one form of substance to another. Its essence sits in my belly. Its spirit dances in my head. A spirit that doesn’t die once the book is read. Rather, it visits and revisits.
In the book’s haunting of me, I find I am part of what I have read. A character, exposed to myself by the author. I revel in where I’ve been; what I’ve learned about journey and about place; and what I’ve learned that I’d hidden from myself. And how, for days or weeks, the story continues to exfoliate, unfold and reveal more and more truth about myself to me.
There is no great divide between good fiction and truth.
After completing a good book or a great story, I don’t immediately pick up another. I want nothing to get in the way of my being haunted for a while.
Wow. Very true. I haven't picked up a new book since I finished The Sweet By and By (the day before my grandma died). I thought of it as "letting that sink in," but you are much more eloquent, "I want nothing to get in the way of my being haunted for a while."
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