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Reading as a Writer: Land of Milk and Honey

After seeing some early promo for C Pam Zhang's Land of Milk and Honey, I was thrilled to find it waiting on the library shelves. I was worried about picking this up, since one of my future novel ideas also involves a foodie in an apocalyptic setting. After reading the book, I'm glad to say that the premise is far enough away that I'm not worried about the overlap anymore. It reminded me a lot of the movie The Menu in tone. 

I also learned that this book is not a potential comp for that novel idea: the prose in this book was so beautiful. It has been a long time since I've read a literary novel, and this book was a great refresher on what precise prose looks like. Not only is each individual word chosen with care, but each line builds, and attention is given to the placement of every paragraph. This book was a reminder of how far I still have to go in my writing skills. I can write a sensical sentence, a non-boring paragraph, a story with an arc that can make people feel. But I can't do what this book does. 

Not yet, anyway. 

Over the last year, I've learned so much and continued to build my confidence in writing in a specific upmarket-leaning style. Land of Milk and Honey has made me question whether I want to stay there, or continue reaching for something else. It also gave me a shining example of a voice that shines through every single word. 

In genre fiction, the characters move through the world in action: we go to the castle, we sharpen our swords, emotionally we are wounded, and we answer that pain with more action. In this book, all of that mechanical movement of character through the world was stripped back to the essentials, with the voice shining through it all. Even if I stay in the commercial space for the near future, this book inspired me to want the skills to pour voice into every crevice of a story.

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