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Showing posts with the label John Fante

PECKERWOOD BOOK CLUB: Dialogue Problems, Plus "The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa!"

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Greetings, Peckerwood Book hors! Summertime's a fun time to catch up on your Guilt Pile™ - or that stack of novels on your nightstand that you have yet to read. Plus, there's always time for more, isn't there? As for literary novels, I have a major pet peeve: the pretentious style of dialogue formatting wherein the open-and-close quote marks are not used. Confused? Me, too. Normally, dialogue formatting goes like this:  "Trump is a cunt," said Fiona, a charming Scottish lass. "He started out as a bit of a numptie, but now - aye! - he can just piss off and eat me dick." Callum nodded his head, for he, too, found Trump intolerable.  "Bet he smells, too."  Easy to read, right? But blowhard literary types do this:  Trump is a cunt, said Fiona, a charming Scottish lass. He started out as a bit of a numptie, but now - aye! - he can just piss off and eat me dick. Callum nodded his head, for he, too, found Trump intolerable. Bet he smells, too.  Witho...