p. 16:
wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.
This captures exactly the feeling of being maneuvered from room to room by an overbearing, physically intimidating host. Your individuality, your humanity even gets a little lost, you aren’t there for your own ends but as a piece in a larger game of another’s design. And of course the game is checkers, not chess, given Tom’s limited mental faculties. Er, not that I’m saying checkers is for dummies, but still – all checkers pieces only move forward until they reach the end.
Also on this page I find memorable charm in Daisy’s simplistic babble: ‘Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it.’ Yeah, me too, hon, me too.
ginsudo 