r.e.s.p.e.c.t.

"If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch..."
.
This is why Jeanne Marie Laskas is my latest writerly heroine. This is a woman who's written equally beautifully and empathetically about coal-miners, oil-riggers, blueberry-pickers, neuropathologists, landfill workers, gun-sellers, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama, among other things. i haven't gotten round to figuring out exactly how she does what she does yet -- still enjoying her writing too much -- but what i can say is that she has this extraordinary ability to make the reader think that you are really getting to know these people. It's like magic, the way she does it. When i'm done with enjoying her work, i'm gonna have to sit down with it and really take it apart to see what exactly she does to conjure that illusion. (Of course, even if i do figure out how the writing works -- that's only half the story, and the less interesting half. Where the skill really lies, is in getting those stories in the first place. Getting people to trust you enough to open up and tell you stuff. That's why i think this woman is a genius.)
.
It certainly doesn't hurt that she's a woman -- one of the few women-writers i actually actively admire. (For some reason, the writers whose work i like tend to be men ... )
.
Need. To. Buy. That. Book.
.o.