Chiming in Finally

The main thing that strikes me is the use of interesting adjectival pairings. However, I'm left wondering just exactly what the imagery they conjure up is exactly.Case in point..."carbonated silence". Once I've thought about that for a bit, tried to imagine just what popping, fizzing silence sounds like (can it sound like anything or is it just an emotional fizziness that is bubbling up to the surface??) I realize that I've been a trifle inattentive to the narrative and have to retrace my steps to reread.

So it is a mental exercise and one that is good for me, but should reading be something that we must take like old-fashioned cod liver oil? Even if the cod liver oil is pleasantly masked in inventive prose?