All in one superhuman breath
I’d really like to get away from this theme, but the examples keep finding me. On reflection it’s mostly the plaudits on the covers of books which contain sloppy writing, that annoys me to the point of complaint. It’s also, of course, a way of warning myself to keep being attentive and particular in my own writing.
This example is from Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri, in her own translation. The narrator’s ageing frail mother, apparently not far from ‘dramatic decline’, delivers a speech of some 18 sentences, covering almost a full page (p138-139). We are told that the mother delivers this speech ‘all in one breath’. I tried reading it aloud and managed six and a half sentences. Perhaps the publisher’s editor has greater lung capacity.
This example doesn’t particularly offend, it’s just funny (and, yes, laughably sloppy). The author has little excuse, having also been the translator. And is it unfair to ask if the editor actually read the work? I begin to wonder, is being able to read a pre-requisite for becoming an editor?
Previously:
