what I felt upon seeing this near-mirror reflection of my own story was, Oh. What I felt was, This has not happened to me only.
Maybe stories don’t make things happen, but maybe through stories we find we are not alone.
- from To & Fro by Leah Hager Cohen
One of my favorite things about reading is that moment when I feel like the author gets me. By this I mean that one observation the character makes, or that one snippet of dialogue, or that one description of a moment, that I feel as deeply as if the author has held out their hand to me and said I see you. I see your life. I see your desires. I see your heart.
This admittedly doesn’t happen as often as I would like, but perhaps that makes it all the more precious. Most recently it happened to me when I read the above passage from Cohen’s delightful and quirky novel in two stories. It is something I’ve been trying to articulate for a while now, but also wondering if I was the only one who had ever had this very experience.
Perhaps you have connected with a passage this way, or maybe that is not specifically why you read. But I’d love to know a book, essay, poem, or story that struck you in some way, that you kept thinking about long after you’d read it. And if you are willing, tell us why!
Thread #4: Stories that Stay With Us
Thread #4: Stories that Stay With Us
Thread #4: Stories that Stay With Us
One of my favorite things about reading is that moment when I feel like the author gets me. By this I mean that one observation the character makes, or that one snippet of dialogue, or that one description of a moment, that I feel as deeply as if the author has held out their hand to me and said I see you. I see your life. I see your desires. I see your heart.
This admittedly doesn’t happen as often as I would like, but perhaps that makes it all the more precious. Most recently it happened to me when I read the above passage from Cohen’s delightful and quirky novel in two stories. It is something I’ve been trying to articulate for a while now, but also wondering if I was the only one who had ever had this very experience.
Perhaps you have connected with a passage this way, or maybe that is not specifically why you read. But I’d love to know a book, essay, poem, or story that struck you in some way, that you kept thinking about long after you’d read it. And if you are willing, tell us why!