Just finished (for the second time) The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. I love this book, but I'm trying to understand something and hope that someone here can help.

Certain passages have quotation marks when the characters are speaking while others do not. It seems to be random, not applied to any one character or characters, and (I think) is consistent within a given chapter.

Does this mean something that I'm just not getting? Is this a known thing that I just don't know?

Comments

jefrye t1_iybdv50 wrote on November 30, 2022 at 3:22 AM

#790,687

You're going to have to give some examples.

[deleted] t1_iybed6n wrote on November 30, 2022 at 3:26 AM

#790,842

[deleted]

bluredditacct t1_iybf6b4 wrote on November 30, 2022 at 3:33 AM

#791,067

Is it when only a single character is talking for multiple paragraphs? They then don't close until the character is done speaking correct? Grammer is not my strong suit though.

Fictitious1267 t1_iybfa87 wrote on November 30, 2022 at 3:34 AM

#791,101

Could it be interior monologue from one character, but the author is changing who it is for each scene?

laurpr2 t1_iybgezk wrote on November 30, 2022 at 3:43 AM

#791,418

Replying to [deleted] (#790,842)

It was a Pulitzer finalist, I highly doubt it got a slapdash editorial treatment.

u/zingara_man, Amanda Holmes Duffy says the author omits quotation makes whenever Mabel and Jack speak with the snow child, perhaps indicating the child is a figment of their imagination but certainly indicating it is an intentional choice that is meant to convey something, even if that "something" is a specific tone or atmosphere.