Word: authorization
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...author, who in the past has dealt fondly and ruefully with flawed and crummy people (Billy Liar, Jubb), starts in an ordinary way-burying his hero to the neck in an anthill of character defects. What is unusual is that Waterhouse then proceeds to spread a blanket, unpack a box lunch, and invite the reader to watch the fun. William, the hero, is a 35-year-old Londoner of such low spiritual energy that he cannot be said to have anything so definite as a desire. But when he remembers to be wistful, he thinks vaguely that it would...
This is funny enough; but the author's peculiar animus against his character pushes the mockery one sentence too far: "He now had secret hopes that she would become an alcoholic so that he could boast about her capacity. . . ." Unfunny, because unbelievable. The reader begins to be uneasy; why is Waterhouse pressing so hard...
Everything ends badly. William loses all his money, and Poodle, who has walked out on him, comes clinging back. The reader is left with the information that a fool is a fool and a feeling of bafflement about why a skillful author has chosen to pull the wings off this particular literary...
Skillfully, the author does show how the humble Drosophila led Haldane to what may be considered the central drama of his life. He was one of the last of the hard-core Stalinists in the Western intellectual community-a genuine holdover from the liberal-Communist marriage of the '30s. During the Civil War, he went to Spain as to a shrine. He closed his eyes to the horrors of Stalin's purges, shrugged off the Hitler-Stalin pact. Unused to the logic of the world, he failed to draw the conclusions that occurred to less talented...
...plot ravels, the author spoofs a variety of human miseries, including college musicals, graduate clubs, the New York Police Department, love, marriage and funerals. These grotesqueries are achieved with a satiric style that matches the droll gazelles of Stewart's imagination. However, far from merely a formless pastiche of perverse events, Stewart has actually created an absurd murder mystery with a strong narrative structure. The clues, leading back to a 20-year-old college musical production and a war refugee organization, are pursued by two bumbling characters who keep the story full of suspense right up to the final...