Meaning of "one bit glinting more than the rest"

Question

People liked the idea of our being together, leaving the city for the country. So many people visited, and the fireplace made all of them want to tell amazing stories; the child who happened to be standing on the right corner when the door of the ice cream truck came open and hundreds of popsicles crashed out; the man standing on the beach, sand sparkling in the sun, one bit glinting more than the rest, stooping to find a diamond ring. Did they talk about amazing things because they thought we'd turn into one of them?

Dose it refer to diamond and mean: finding the diamond is better than finding anything else.

This context is from a short story named: snow by Ann Beattie

Answer 1

Yes, you are correct that the passage means, "one bit [of the sand] was glinting (sparkling) more than the rest [of the sand]", and of course that bit was the diamond, not sand.

But the specific phrase, "one bit glinting more than the rest", is just a literal description of the way the event happened. The story, taken as a whole, is about the extra meaning given to stories and events in people's lives, but the phrase itself does not carry any special metaphorical significance beyond just telling what happened when a sparkly diamond ring was found at the beach.