Sorry for jumping in so late, but I thought I'd share - not similes, but metaphors.

First favourite - surreal:

"Nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands."

(I shall leave it to the regulars to tell us where that is from - I have disguised it a bit...)

Second favourite - hard-boiled:

"It was the kind of neighbourhood in which they rolled up the pavements after dark."

(Can't remember which book, but anything by Chandler sounds favourite.)

cheer

the sunshine warrior