Mark Kurlansky

In writing non-fiction the writer is limited. If you are too vivid and lively you risk the presentation of fiction. A good non-fiction writer skirts it and engages in artful language only sparingly and perferably late in the book after trust is earned.

This is part of his description of the former Fulton Street market in Manhattan circa 1860 or so.

"The gas lighting was dim and the air often misty from the river and this gave an eerie smudgy haziness to the busy market where deer and squirrels and opossums and wild turkeys were hanging from beams."

-From The Big Oyster

Henry Miller

Not a novel pick, it is and he are classics after all. From Black Spring:

"In fact, neither of them was ashamed of showing hsi tears, something which seems to have gone out of the world now."

Hollis Gillespie

It's not the main character, because it is herself. It's not the content, she gets cute, and sappy a littel too often. The pace is conversational like that really funny friend you had in college. But peppered throughout are single sentences that are unforgetable. One that presses you to read on. from Bleachy haired honky bitch.

"Nothing like stumbling over a dead puppy to dick up your day, so thank god that didn't happen, but it almost did."

"I dislike being bled on."

"My friend is fucking her boss, which I think is a really bad buisness move."

"the eye-catching result was that they both sported big shiny red baboon asses."