The Perfect Sentence.

Once in a great while but very rarely, I'm afraid, I will come across a sentence that just knocks me for a loop. A sentence that makes me stop, look around for support (even if there's no one else in the room except my dog), point to the sentence and say: "Will you look at this? Pay attention, now." Then I read it aloud. (My dog pretends to listen.) This moment is often accompanied by the urge to run to the window and demand the world's attention. A perfect sentence is nothing to sneeze at.

Luckily for me, I've never given in to this urge.

But I've decided I need a place to post perfect sentences of my acquaintance whenever - if ever - I come across one. This blog is my way, I suppose, of running to the window and demanding the world's attention.

A perfect sentence is a funny thing. I believe it doesn't, necessarily, have to have anything to do with its surroundings. Oh, it helps if it blends in. But occasionally, I've fallen in love with sentences that are living la vida loca by themselves. Just existing in their own little universe at the beginning, middle or end of a book. The rest of the manuscript can be mediocre OR wowza! Doesn't much matter. (Though of course, wowza! is much to be preferred.)

The string of words which may capture your eye, your imagination and your understanding of perfection can exist on its own, independent of what else is going on around it. I truly believe that. Sometimes you come across a sentence like this and if you sound it out, you will hear music. In that case it is the sound of the words rubbing together to make some sort of agreeable noise.

Or sometimes, it's the combo of sound and word selection. There are some words which are exceptionally pretty to view and say aloud. Then there are the words which in and of themselves are gently innocuous but when placed side by side with just exactly the right companions, they are transformed into shooting stars.

So, okay, indulge me. I'm going to give over a little section of my blog to perfection. Not quotes, although of course, they will be quotes since the sentence will be taken from the pages of books I may be reading. But they will not be chosen so much for meaning in the context of the story, as for meaning you might make of them on their own, separate from the story. Perfect sentences that can exist just for the sheer joy of perfection. Can words be beautiful on their own apart from contextual meaning?

I think so.

Of course, if none of this makes any sense to you, then oh well, I did my best to explain . Move along, move along, there's nothing more for you to see. Ha!

I'll begin with just one sentence posted on here for now. One - until I'm lucky enough to come across another piece of perfection. Of course, that may be: never. Or next week. One never knows.

I'm going to begin - not with Shakespeare which is rather the more obvious choice - with a sentence I found in a Jordan Ellenberg's exceptional debut novel THE GRASSHOPPER KING. (His only novel, I'm afraid. Ellenberg told me, by email, that he wasn't going to be writing any more fiction for awhile. He wanted to focus more fully on his mathematical pursuits. I believe he's a math professor.) Well, I suppose having once made such a brilliant debut he can rest on his laurels. Having written the most gorgeously perfect sentence within that debut doesn't hurt either. No matter if he never writes another book, I'll have that sentence.

But I have to tell you, this one of my all time favorite novels - a book I honestly cherish. When I read it I kept thinking, wow. Wow. Wow. All the way through. It's THAT kind of thing. The book is basically a fiendishly clever (and often hilarious) take on fate, irony, myth, marriage, the perils of university life, tenure and, oh yes, bad poetry. Doesn't sound very appetizing, does it? But I can't describe it any differently. This is a book that you either clasp to your bosom from the first few sentences or you don't. I did.

Occasionally if it reminded me of anything, it reminded me of Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Russo's take on university life, STRAIGHT MAN. (Another book I recommend if you like the university setting as a background for mildly bizzaro doings.)

Well, okay, this is not really meant as a review of THE GRASSHOPPER KING which I will not review fully for fear of not being able to reveal its exquisiteness to you in a way that will make you run right out and get a copy for your very own. There are books I just love too, too much to risk you not liking them. It's a personal thing. I couldn't bear it if you told me, well Yvette, I just don't know what you see in this boring old thing. Nope. Don't want to go there.

Herewith, that perfect sentence lifted from Jordan Ellenberg's book:

My father, a mild man, dedicated to prudent consistency, demurred.

A sentence that sings to me of all sorts of things. Said aloud it is music to my ears. Looked at, it is beautiful. Dissected, it could have several meanings. The word 'demurred' purrs.

What next? I hope to be adding to The Perfect Sentence every now and then as I run across something that strikes me as exceptional.

To those of you who may have understood this odd little post of mine, I say: prepare to share any perfect sentence you may come across in your day to day reading. Keep your own aesthetic eye on the look-out.

And, by the way, I'm not going to be going through the books on my shelves in search of perfection. No, I am just going to begin keeping my eye out, from this day forward, not forcing the issue, depending on happenstance. (If I wanted to, obviously, I could just sit here and pick through Shakespeare or the English poets and come up with perfection by the bucketful. But that would be too easy. Easy is not what this is about. It's more of an on-going treasure hunt.