From another post, I'm now curious about the book Wicked autumn by G.M. Malliet, especially the author's style of writing.
For example, I found that it's rather tiresome to read and understand this sentence,
(a) She was saying these things now—calling on all the resources in her cliché lineup, in fact—to a captive audience of approximately thirty-five women who, to a woman, were wishing themselves elsewhere than in the Village Hall, sitting on orange molded-plastic seats that might have been rejects from an ergonomics study, on an otherwise peaceful Saturday night in September.
But after reading it a few times, I can parse them as a perfectly grammatical English sentence.
However, I was baffled with this one,
(b) She stood, feet solidly planted, a vital, comely, and charismatic figure who, although essentially otherworldly, managed to operate her New Age gift shop on a large profit margin.
I can understand the meaning, but by patching those fragments together. To me, it seems like a run-on sentence, but I was suggested that it is just an unusually long string of apposition.
Could you please help me parse that sentence (b)?
Answer
The base of the sentence is simply she stood, with the rest of the words either describing her or how she stood. These other words could have been written into additional sentences, but have presumably been kept together for stylistic reasons.
If we apply she stood and selectively omit other parts, perhaps the meaning will become clearer:
She stood, feet solidly planted.
She stood…, a vital, comely, and charismatic figure.
She stood…, a figure who [was] essentially otherworldly.
She stood…, a figure who… managed to operate her… shop on a large profit margin.
String it all together, and we obtain a meaning like
She stood with her feed solidly planted. She was a vital, comely, and charismatic figure. She managed to operate her New Age gift shop on a large profit margin even though she was essentially otherworldly.
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