As my friend Jana says, Rachel Cusk breaks all the writing rules in Outline and Transit—including the rule of “show, don’t tell”—but she makes it work. And here is a paragraph from Transit with an example at the end of a metaphor that is both surprising and satisfyingly inevitable:
“She reached out for her champagne glass and took a slow mouthful. Behind her, the fog stood blankly at the windows. I was surprised by her age, which I would have guessed to be at least ten years younger, though hers wasn’t the strenuous youthfulness of active self-preservation; rather, she merely looked as if she had avoided exposure, like a fold in a curtain that remains unfaded because it never sees the sun.”
Beverly Jean Harris 