Word: cardinales
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
The narrator begins in medias res: At 30 she is already in the grip of the "Thing," a mental and physical illness which creates irrational anxiety and fear in the mind, continuous bleeding and a racing pulse in the body. Cardinal plays the analyst here, setting in order the critical...
Writers as famous as Dante have recounted similar stories, as Bruno Bettelheim points out in his preface to the novel. But Cardinal seems to care more about recounting her experience honestly than about casting it in polished prose. She writes in the tradition of popular fiction, and as concerned as...
An unusual number of images fill the novel's pages but many are unnecessary or overdone, Frequently Cardinal produces paragraphs of subtle, suggestive prose only to ruin the effect by making an all-too obvious cooperation at the end. We don't need to be told. For it stance, that...
HOWEVER, the occasional beautifully-writes package and Cardinal's more striking images ultimately lift The Words To Say It above the level of most popular fiction. Translator Patrician Goodheart carefully reproduces the rhythm and atmosphere of the French. Particularly notable are the many passages evoking the life and color of...
The opening paragraphs of the book showcase Cardinal's sense of nuance and suggestion at its best. In this passage she hints at many of the themes in her story without making blunt statements or obvious comparisons: