Review: The brilliance that is Hazy Shade of Winter
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 9, 2012
Chris Roberts' mastery of language reads like music on a page. Some people can read musical notes, some can only listen, most all can be moved by such lyricality. This is five-star quality literature at its finest with the use of language that is indeed lyrical and seemingly forms a wistful stanza. The character of Blaine is drawn deeply and we feel her pain in the very first sentence:"When by the frost of the windowpane and all that descends from the sky are dying snowflakes, it is a canto."Roberts does a brilliant job of foreshadowing for readers what will transpire by the end of this short story. I'm not sure that all of us catch it in reading it the first time through, but it's there. Blaine must battle the downside of fame and her manic-depression and she still attempts to cope with the death of her father and abide the sins of her mother. All of this has left Blaine assailable and, perhaps, inevitably unable to co-exist with her poetic talent.Roberts' prose sums her up so nicely with this:"It is all of it a curse and a blessing and it is verse and it is all of it so entirely, so utterly hers."My favorite lines from this work:"But this time it is different. The awakening from the episode, the restoration of clarity and consciousness are swept outward, away from the tangible familiarities of the sitting room. Her desk and the beloved star-patterned floor rug are given flight, along with the fine drapes that clutch at the broken window, hesitantly, then finally let loose to succumb to winter's wind."This is an intriguing short story. It is brilliant, evocative, and beautiful. It leaves this reader (and writer) wanting more of Chris Roberts' work and envying him for his discernible literary talent.