Sharpe is good with character, but then, first person pov is very showing of character in how they portray the world. For example, this was great:
He’s a funny man, our family doctor, not funny-laughing but funny-sighing, he’s like a figure in a bad painting who wishes it was in a better painting. (Pocahontas, p. 14)
This was wonderfully put, yet evidently Sharpe felt so too and like make authors, tries to make a good line serve double-duty, although at least he did it honestly:
My dad’s chief advisor, Dr. Sidney Feingold, the one who I know you remember I told you said I have a tumult in my ovaries, and reminds me of a guy in a bad painting who wants to be in a better painting–that guy–entered the pantry. (Pocahontas, p. 25)
So for me, the idea was diluted and less outstanding. Here’s another glimpse into Pocahontas’ via her own words, and it is one that shows us just how far, despite her emotional immaturity, she does ‘get the picture’:
Do great and powerful men where you’re from sat they’re sad and use words like emotionally only when talking to women? I mean I love my dad and everything but what was that visit to the pantry about, anyway? What did he mean to tell me? Does he think I’m a receptacle for his delicate girly feelings? I ain’t no receptacle. (Pocahontas, p. 26)
Even as she’s telling us her feeling, she’s telling us what her world is like, and wondering if ours–the future somewhere–is different because she doesn’t go along with it.
There is a childlike naivete’ about Pocahontas, mixed with some street knowledge that’s beginning to hook me.naivete
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology