A Sea Worry

I appreciate the brevity of Maxine Hong Kingston's piece. So much must be conveyed in such a small space, each word must be carefully chosen and positioned, like building a tiny ship in an even tinier glass bottle. Kingston's piece is unpretentious. She describes her son's love and her fear of surfing, the dangers involved, the passion the boys feel for it. It flows nicely, does not snag your eyes on too-long sentences or sudden and misplaced semi-colons. Matter of factly, she has a technique anyone trying to get into nonfiction writing should heed and pay attention to, at the very least, yet not necessarily emulate or imitate.