I think sensual is the word that comes to mind every time I think of this story and was definitely hitting me while I was reading it. I also liked the way he inserted dialogue:
"Her: I want to feel your weight on top of me." for example.
What was it about Kimball's story that first caught your attention?
David McLendon:
Honestly, it is never content that Kimball hits me with. It is his relationship with language that holds my attention. Kimball is a master of subtle subversions on the page. On the face of it one might not notice what Kimball is doing with language, but sentence by sentence he is placing a personal wager between himself and the page. I know of no one - with perhaps the exceptions of Gordon Lish and Gary Lutz - who knows and understands every cog and flywheel and screw of the language machine to the degree of Kimball's reach. It's as if his mother ate pages from the OED and manuals of style while Kimball was in her womb. Of course he "learned" a lot about language over the years, but his sense of hearing is greatly inherent, and he is able to press his hearing into corners of language that remain mostly unheard by others. Each time I commend him on one of his subtle subversions, Kimball thanks me and points out an additional two that I missed. I swear if you cut the man he would bleed words. But don't try that. Reading his work produces the same effect, and does not require any stitchwork.
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