Click on the link below to read the following blog entry by Karen Carlson. Pay close attention to the paragraph that begins, “That’s what makes this story, as familiar as it is, work for me: it’s lovely writing. Yet I wonder, as I always do: when something stands up and announces itself as lovely writing, is it really lovely writing? Or is it one step removed from lovely writing, which would really be sort of invisible…?”

Also note Carlson’s next paragraph, which describes the “heartstrings effect.”

• “Pushcart 2014: Madhuri Vijay, ‘Lorry Raja’ from Narrative, Winter 2012″ by Karen Carlson, from A Just Recompense.