More metaphors

by Jennifer Bryce

As a writer, I find it helpful, instructive and intriguing to keep collections of what I (rather loosely sometimes) call metaphors or similes that jump out at me when I’m reading. Here are some that I’ve come across recently.

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All the wretchedness of their shared pasts had been distilled into this one child	Kate Atkinson: Big Sky, p. 11
With the remnant of his laughter still trickling from his face	Kingsley Amis: Lucky Jim, p.46
Through the tulle of darkness	Lee Kofman: The Dangerous Bride, p.75
Prongs of excitement	Lee Kofman: The Dangerous Bride, p.92
Its walls seemed to throb with his anger	Pat Barker: Life Class, p.5
Corrugated faces	Michelle de Kretser: The Life to Come, P.25
Someone’s scraped me out with a spoon	Michelle de Kretser: The Life to Come, P.66
The lights along the embankment shuddered in the water	Michelle de Kretser: The Life to Come, P.132
A thorny sort of woman	Michelle de Kretser: The Life to Come, P.149
Citrus-sharp brain (Diana Mosley)	Laura Thompson: The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters p. 238
His glare could have burned through brick	Kate Grenville: A Room Made of Leaves p.145
The tangling of two hearts	Kate Grenville: A Room Made of Leaves p.232
My smile felt as brittle as porcelain	Kate Grenville: A Room Made of Leaves p.233

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Here are some more!

Faces deranged by the dancing firelight	Diane Cook: The New Wilderness, p.20
A scramble of rocks	Diane Cook: The New Wilderness, p.217
Her severe face had no thread of relaxation in it	Charles Dickens: Little Dorrit, p.49
The spool of his thoughts	Maggie O’Farrell: Hamnet, p.38
A deep undertow of shame	Maggie O’Farrell: Hamnet, p.96
Coiled fury	Maggie O’Farrell: Hamnet, p.145
Scorched with rage	Maggie O’Farrell: Hamnet, p.345

A scarf of cloud drifting across the Centrepoint Tower	Helen Garner: One Day I’ll Remember This: Diaries 1987 – 1995, p.1
Frozen in their own importance	Helen Garner: One Day I’ll Remember This: Diaries 1987 – 1995, p.3
A long street quivering with plane trees	Helen Garner: One Day I’ll Remember This: Diaries 1987 – 1995, p.72
V’s face lost all expression, like a blackboard just wiped	Helen Garner: One Day I’ll Remember This: Diaries 1987 – 1995, p.123
I vacuumed dramatically	Helen Garner: One Day I’ll Remember This: Diaries 1987 – 1995, p.224