Why do I like Patrick White’s style so much?

Just raving about him doesn’t convince anyone,
so I decided to group some of the features that set my spine tingling.

Here are a few fragments from Riders in the Chariot, as a taster:

• Mrs Jolley’s face, which was still eating, had become a series of lumps.
• More than a little disarranged, her flesh turned mauve beneath the last vestiges of powder, the Lady from Czernowitz was still able to glitter from behind the kohl.
• ‘If you will pass this way,’ almost shouted the plump goddess, perspiring on her foam rubber.
• Little sighs would break, scintillating, on the Wilton wall-to-wall
• The two ladies clutched each other by the gloves.
• Mr Hoggett, who was pretty big, simply sat, in his singlet, expressing himself with his belly.
• Her mouth, which was working to solve, suddenly subsided on the teeth.

For a fuller analysis of some of my favourite lines, see the table attached below:

riders-in-the-chariot-a-compilation-of-lines