Word: aura
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Camara Laye is a young Negro from French Guinea, now studying in Paris, who has written a brief, effective autobiography, THE DARK CHILD (188 pp.; Noonday Press; $2.75). It has an aura of primitive charm that is fully matched by its simple dignity. Laye came from Kouroussa, a town in the interior, where his father was a famous goldsmith. The town was near the railroad and had a hospital and schools, but its inhabitants believed in spirits and magic spells, although they were Moslems. Laye is firmly convinced that his mother had magic powers, tells how even the witch doctors...
...tricky first bars of Weber's Der Freischiitz overture, the French horns were as rich as a Rembrandt painting, and the big string section gave off an aura as warm as the old rose of the eleven cellos. The Concertgebouw made less noise than the best U.S. orchestras, and its climaxes were never ear-piercing. Rather, it seemed to inhale smoothly, reach its peaks easily, then relax with a sigh instead of an exhausted gasp...
...lying outside New York City and Philadelphia are populated largely by commuters-business and professional men. It has its McCarthy element, centered squarely in Democratic Hudson County (Jersey City), where Frank ("I Am the Law") Hague (now retired) built his machine. In recent years New Jersey has developed an aura of political corruption, although it is well-supplied with reformers...
...This aura of corruption is a heavy burden for Case to bear. In addition, it has removed from the working-campaign organization many old G.O.P. professionals whose skill would be helpful, but whose reputations might be fatal. Case truthfully tells the voters that he had no part in making this splattered record, but the Democrats, using the guilt-by-association argument so familiar to U.S. politics, are making some headway with the Republican record of corruption...
...Sympathy, a bewildered boy was caught up violently in action, it is of inaction that he is the victim here. And deprived of melodrama, Playwright Anderson is driven into sentimentality. One of the things that Willie (engagingly played by Clay Hall) has thrust upon him is an undue aura of gallantry and affirmation. On the other hand, he has none of the imagination and humor of such another sensitive and bewildered child as the heroine of The Member of the Wedding...