Now, a Masterpiece

PROSE worth rereading does not merely communicate: Lucidity with “elegant variations,” as they used to be called, is not worth a second look, since you get the point. The best prose makes things happen. It uses pace, rhythm, length of phrase and sentence, pauses, vocabulary, imagery; it brings into being the experienced reality of a mental world. In his New York Times review of Marilynne Robinson’s novel Gilead, James Wood wrote that in her work, “silence is itself a quality, [and] the space around words may be full of noises.” That should catch anyone’s attention; it did mine. And Wood was right.

First of all, Robinson slows things down, as in an old epistolary novel. Gilead employs a diary form; what plot there is does not drive the reader ahead. Gradually, as the book slows down your ordinary pace, you begin to read patiently and with wonder.

About the Author

Jeffrey Hart

Jeffrey Hart is a contributor to National Review.

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PROSE worth rereading does not merely communicate: Lucidity with “elegant variations,” as they used to be called, is not worth a second look, since you get the point. The best prose makes things happen. It uses pace, rhythm, length of phrase and sentence, pauses, vocabulary, imagery; it brings into being the experienced reality of a mental world. In his New York Times review of Marilynne Robinson’s novel Gilead, James Wood wrote that in her work, “silence is itself a quality, [and] the space around words may be full of noises.” That should catch anyone’s attention; it did mine. And Wood was right.

First of all, Robinson slows things down, as in an old epistolary novel. Gilead employs a diary form; what plot there is does not drive the reader ahead. Gradually, as the book slows down your ordinary pace, you begin to read patiently and with wonder.