Word: attempting
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...preoccupations--it begins with the memory of Vetch, as if everything that follows is an elegy on the dark fate of the write--it is probably the least successful element of what is essentially a comic story. Chabon's strength is his witty, graceful, delicately absurd style, and his attempt to turn his comic creations into bearers of a secret curse does not come off. Grady remains a Rabelaisian "minotaur," too devoted to sex, marijuana and adventure ever to seem suicidal; even James is more quirky than disturbed...
...when Chabon drops the midnight disease and simply shows us Grady as a lonely and loveable guy, he produces some wonderful scenes, both hilarious and genuinely touching. In the novel's finest section, Grady visits his in-laws' Passover Seder in a fruitless attempt to win back his wife, Emily. Emily is one of three Korean orphans adopted by a suburban Jewish couple, Irv and Marie, and this improbable family becomes for Grady the warm, loving home he desperately needs...
...loving, knowing observation of Grady and his world is the novel's greatest strength. When he does not attempt to philosophize, Chabon pulls off his comic stunts with grace, and we can't help but applaud. Wonder Boys is a successful and clever second novel, and it leaves us looking forward to Chabon's third...
...same time, we must fault GESO leaders for disrupting their commitment to academics in an attempt to take a few hundred dollars more from the university. GESO members must abandon the illusion that they are merely salaried laborers at their university...
...future, Snyder and Wolfe plan to attempt the correction of a larger animal model...