Novel in Progress/An Excerpt (4)

Stories had saved Sophie, stories with their small acts of victorious aggression, their black words on white pages, their strikes against, their love affairs with deviations. There was snatch and thrum in stories. There was sway and influence, shatter and audacity, the glory yield of the road not taken; Sophie had gone her own way. She had set off with no sure understanding of where she had been or why she had been there ....