Kindred Spirit

I know, how presumptuous of me to be so possessive of her. But really. . . I want to talk to her.  I wish I could be her friend, but I'm sure I'd end up just soaking her in my worshipful drool.  And she'd be grossed out. And she'd be like, "Hate to tell, but your writing sucks. And I don't actually hate to tell you." But, yeah. A girl can dream.  About being friends, not about what she'd say.

The instant I graduated from juniordom and embarked on my pre-senior summer, I began my AP lit summer work.  The reading part, that is.  That included Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Handmaid's Tale.  I tolerated and appreciated George Orwell, but I fell head-over-heels in love with Margaret Atwood.  To the point of drooling.  Almost.  Just imagine the kind of person it takes to write a book like that.  So overwhelming, yet unassuming, so complicated and grand, yet casual.  (I love paradoxes. Or maybe just contradictions.) The kind of book I struggle between being so enthralled as to finish it quickly, and knowing once it's done, I can never read it for the first time again.

And then.  I read The Blind Assassin. And more drooling happened. Seriously, maybe I'm just dumb, but I didn't see the end coming.  Those are the kinds of surprises I like.  I loved the lovers. They were like crack for me.  Reading that story gave me some serious inspiration (does it count, like that?).  I'll post the inspired-by piece sometime.

Now I'm halfway through The Robber Bride, and even though it may have disappointed others, it doesn't seem like it's going down that road for me.  There is this character named Charis (with a hard k sound), who is a young hippie with an old soul.  She's all in tune with people's auras and the colors of pain and feelings and taking care of living things.  Margaret just continues to awe me with her characterization and the way she makes people deeper and wider then even what she writes about them.

This may seem a bit over assured on my part, but I feel like I have a connection with her, or at least I think in a similar way.  I recognized my own thought pattern in her writing and although my work is far from the level she's attained, I imagine she didn't start out where she is now, either.

Do you have any writers that you particularly feel a similar connection with?  Not just ones that you like, but ones whose style you sometimes emulate or who you feel would be great to talk to?