I recently read a book. Don’t look so surprised.
In my annual reading plan (which I discussed here), I try to discover a few new authors every year. One of this year’s authors is the late Brian Doyle, essayist and novelist. His book has been a joy. However, he, like an increasing number of novelists (seemingly), eschews quotation marks in his fictional dialogue.
Like this:
What does it feel like?
Like electricity, in a way, says Worried Man. But there’s a sort of screaming or tearing in it. A chattering. It’s hard to explain.
Where is it?
Nearby. Up.
Can you tell …?
A woman.
The doctor, discreet, bows gently and heads back to his house.
(from Brian Doyle’s Mink River, Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2010)
I don’t like that. I know, I know, it’s “literary.” It is a “union of form and content, where everything is given the same undifferentiated weight because everything feels equally heavy,” according to Maija Kappler. In her article, “Why Are So Many Authors Abandoning Speech Marks?” she points out that successful authors from Sally Rooney to Celeste Ng are doing it.
It’s a choice. Some even think quotation marks slow down the reader. But for my money (not that I have any), I think it courts confusion. even when I’m reading the brilliant fiction of a writer like Brian Doyle. I’m not always sure when speech ends and sometimes find myself reading nonspeech as if it were spoken, and vice versa, forcing me to retrace my steps and reorient myself before reading on.
Yes, I know I’m old-fashioned. I’m also a curmudgeon. And maybe I’ll get used to it the more I read it. Then again, once I discover a writer making that style choice, I actually consider avoiding that person’s other works.
What about you? Have you come across this in your reading? Do you prefer quotation marks or not? Do tell.
