The Avant Savant gets kinky...

New book. And so comes the habitual google. I was directed to many a blogs and an interesting theory approached my periphery of literary analysis. And in the fog of the googling blog arose The Page 69 Test. or sometimes traded in for the The Page 99 Test. For discussion purposes, we shall gold star the original school of thought: The Page 69 Test.

It's as simple as a pie, unless you are Keri Russell.

One book determined on one single, solitary page.

Whiz threw through the pages like a whisper through a batch of marigolds, and we are now on the determinant page 69 and all of discussion will rely solely on this one page. Revolutionary? Revolutionarily lazy?

However, I think this is trusty barometer. I love this book and I love page 69. It is smack-dab in the middle of my favorite chapter of the piece and it is build-up to some of my favorite lines:
"I remember being exhausted. I remember seeing my face stare back at me from the black window. I remember the shiver of the cold on my spine. Sometimes snow would blow into the room and cover our bodies."

Wonderous. Her writing is as meticulous as Merry Gold, the seamstress. There is a lot to be explored in the straddling page 69. With just the quote above, it brings many themes present throughout the text. The parallel structure of three is utilized throughout. Kathleen, I know has touched upon the whole concept of the grouping of three. These three lines of four show the make-up of the three. While life usually moves in three, the make-up is not entirely connected. As the first two lines proceed the "I remember" with -ing verbs and the third one proceeds with a noun. Even within the simple syntax of the middle of the page 69 demonstrates a faulty and phony bond that Merry Gold aches about whether it be with her parents, her sisters or her two best friends. She may feel a place and an order at one point, but she will always disappear from this equation, usually from her own nature to distance herself from the constantly evolving world around her [she wants to immobilize herself (the whole talk of cutting off her legs on page 92 and her fascination with the wooden-leg neighbor)].

Another element to explore within this page is the concept of color. Like autobiography, it is purposeful. We are told later on and maybe before I cannot place at the moment that Merry revels in the grey area, but many times she must encounter stark colors to that--many times it is the color of black and white, marrying the hueful extremes to mate grey. There is black in this scene with Danilo and then it contrasted with the white girl in the white dress who falls through the white ice. Leaving as always Merry Gold in the dichotomy, in the grey. The grey slithers throughout the piece. We usually, through nurtured connotation, perceive the colors in an inanimate sense; black as evil and white as pure. The grey is the slime we see coating Merry and her intimate interactions with men. Danilo is a creeper, how cavalier is he with making her a puppet, making her dance and engaging in something as so innocent of having Merry place her head on his shoulder. The actions contrast in the underbelly of emotion. It's a simple act, convoluted in the "narrowed eyes" of these hard characters like Merry and Danilo.

Oh gosh, there is so much. Questions to be had on this page: why is Merry (cold rhymes with gold ever notice that, came up with that right now--has to be purpose too since coldness is always what she is) Gold, with a name reminiscent of the flower, always compared to animals and insects and flowers? Is there purpose to her eating the leg of the chicked, as leg has been a focal point before?

Look one page and I am writing a novel. yet. a. gain.

Brilliant job Kate; you passed The Page 69 Test. This book is a gem--and with a glimmer in the cold light--a eerily-warm beauty.