LITERATURE: Provinces of Night – Simile

I like this:

In these early days with the old man it seemed to Fleming that he was already changing, though he had never known his grandfather before and could not have said what he was changing from: from the protagonist of other men’s stories, perhaps, for he no longer looked like a man given to gunfights with deputies, this benign old man watching whatever moved with his wry ironic eyes did not seem the type to clean out Saturday night honkytonks, to be waylaid on Indian Creek by men who rose out of the sage like sepia men of another century who sighted down the barrels of their rifles and blew him off the wagonseat into the bloody weeds.  (p. 173)

Fleming is getting to know his grandfather and holds him up against not just what he reads (he’s an avid reader and wannabe writer) but against the few stories he’s been able to catch from townfolk–since his family has little to say about him. 

Gay’s simile is one laced with ‘authorspeak’ –"protagonist," and referring to the drama and action required of genre novels.  It is an interesting inclusion that reminds us of Fleming’s desire to be a writer in a very subtle manner, and yet one that holds high appeal to the writer/reader.