The Daily Word for August 4, 2021

 

concinnity - noun - elegance or neatness of literary or artistic style (Lexico.com)

Let's face it. Yup, let's get close and personal for a moment. The word elegance and everything remotely related to it have become archaic along with the likes of fedoras, tuxes with cummerbunds for men, and hoop skirts, beaded gowns, and pearls for women. Unfortunately, superficial smoothness is out of style. B

However, that is not necessarily true when it comes to "neatness of literary" style or concinnity. Although I am not a book critic and never want to be, I'm going to have to praise neophyte author Brit Bennett for her concinnity in The Vanishing Half. All I have to say is that she must have read Toni Morrison's classics over and over until she was blue in the face. If not, perhaps Morrison's adept concinnity migrated into the depths of young Bennett's being via osmosis as it was once believed that if you slept with the right book under your pillow, you'd wake up equally as talented at writing as the author of choice. Did Bennett do this? I have no idea. While reading TVH, it is also possible to pick up on a bit of Colin Whitehead's voice as well. Maybe she rested her head on top of one of his books, too? If she double-dipped in this department, she must not have gotten a lot of sleep growing up since even the thickest, $425 pillow by Hotel Collection can't eliminate the sharp corners and bumps of hardcover books. But they could've been paperbacks, in which case my theory has just been debunked. 

Now admittedly as a snobbish, fastidious bibliophile, I would rather pick up one of Richard Wright's or James Baldwin's masterpieces, but since they and their concinnity are no longer around to contribute to the current market, Brit Bennett will do just fine. Call up your local library and reserve a copy today as the waiting list is long. 

The takeaway? It is comforting to know that concinnity hasn't gone the way of the aforementioned clothing or even the Oldsmobile. 

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