Everyone perceives reality differently, and Katherine Vaz is able to add a unique twist to it in her novels. After reading her book, Our Lady of the Artichokes, I realized that there are two sides to every historical event. One side is the actual event, while the other side is how people involved see the event. In Katherine Vaz’s new novel, Below the Salt, she narrates a story of how John perceives his surroundings. As a writer, she places herself in her characters’ shoes and does extensive research on the events that occurred during the time period.
Katherine Vaz, the 29th Harman Writer-In-Residence, discusses the journey of creating her novel-in-progress. During her reading, she uses strong, descriptive adjectives to portray a realistic setting throughout the passage. Furthermore, these words are strung together to invoke emotions in her audience. In one passage, she narrates, “Twilight is a paint spill…and here you are, here you are born” to describe the birth of John Olves in the jail cell. By creating this beautiful picture, she is able to turn a tragic event into a dreamy one. Her writing style is different from any that I’ve come across before.
In Our Lady of the Artichokes, she uses the same technique to incorporate the two sides of Catholicism. She also includes elements of the New World’s culture into this Old World religion. Through her stories, I am able to have a better understanding of how children from the New World perceived the traditions of Catholicism in Portugal.
Vaz juxtaposes two realities through her writing. By comparing the two, she is giving her audience two perspectives of the story. Also, as a reader, I find myself immersed in her novels because of the effective descriptions she continues to use to develop her story.
