Posted by John Lambert on October 09, 2009 at 21:48:26 user John.
In Reply to: Re: E. Nesbit (was: Writing in the first person) posted by Peter Ceresole on October 09, 2009 at 21:05:08:
One of the very few times I have achieved instant and complete identification with a literary character was when Bobbie read the newspaper account of why her father was arrested.
She never remembered how she got home. But she went on tiptoe to her
room and locked the door. Then she undid the parcel and read that
printed column again, sitting on the edge of her bed, her hands and feet
icy cold and her face burning. When she had read all there was, she drew
a long, uneven breath.
"So now I know," she said.
I have never read a similar account about my father, but at that moment I knew exactly how she felt. Even at the age of 14, I somehow knew that this was the purpose of literature - to help us feel what we could never know on our own.