“She wasn’t beautiful to me so much as exotic, although that might be too strong a word for what I’m trying to express. An ability to fascinate is probably closer to what I’m looking for, a certain air of self-sufficiency that made you want to watch her, even when she just sat there and did nothing.”
These two sentences are doing some heavy lifting; both character development and exposition done so subtly that this passage could easily be passed over as typical Male Gaze bullshit. I am grateful for the constant rewards I find in reading Mr. Auster.
