Exposition contains tenderness; dramatized scenes prove emotional experience. Say what?!

All right, I need your help. You got some ‘splaining to do. Please. Especially if you’re a writer, teach writing, study it, edit it or review it. The name of this exercise is “WHAT’D HE SAY??? WHAT’D HE MEAN???”

In yesterday’s post, I wrote about Akhil Sharma’s award-winning novel, FAMILY LIFE.

In “A Conversation Between Akhil Sharma and Mohsin Hamid,” included in the back of the book, Sharma says something that I didn’t understand. I read it

Semi-autobiographical ‘Family Life’ wins the Folio Prize for Akhil Sharma

Akhil Sharma’s second novel, FAMILY LIFE, has won the Folio Prize which is given to a work of fiction written in English and published in Britain and carries an award of approximately $60,000.

William Fiennes, who chaired the committee of judges called it a “lucid, compassionate, quietly funny account of one family’s life across continents and cultures.”

Sharma has said that the book is semi-autobiographical, but is not a memoir. “For me, a memoir is nonfiction and nonfiction has to be absolutely true.” However, he added, “Almost everything in the novel is true.” (“A Conversation Between Akhil Sharma and Mohsin Hamid,”