Word: balsams
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...trees in a trench along the beach, which trapped wind-blown sand and anchored a new sand dune. "The trees were heavy, and some were bigger than me!" recalls fourth-grader Jim Abbott. When fierce nor'easters rushed across the beach, the dune built by kids and bolstered by balsam firs held up, while nearby dunes washed away...
Gail Godwin's 10th novel, Evensong (Ballantine; 405 pages; $25), is set in the very near future indeed, specifically the waning weeks of 1999. Millennial fever has reached even the idyllic and remote Smoky Mountain town of High Balsam, N.C. (winter pop. 1,000), where Margaret Bonner, 33, serves as rector of All Saints Episcopal Church. "Winter in the Great Smokies would shortly be upon us," Margaret says at the outset of her tale, "the winter that would see us into the next century and the new millennium. Other things were on their way to us as well, things...
Finally, a former High Balsam resident named Grace Munger has reappeared in town, hectoring everyone to join the "Millennium Birthday March for Jesus" that she is organizing, spurred on, she claims, by divine inspiration. Much of her bullying is directed at Margaret, who refuses to commit herself or her church to this sort of public demonstration. "We need less display," Margaret lectures Grace, "and more unassuming deeds behind the scenes." Privately, though, Margaret worries, "Am I just being a snob...
...experimentation with words, which becomes the true focal point of the novel and admirably recreates Ann's sentiments and state of mind. At times, the boundaries of grammar dissolve into an endless stream of images that jump from fragments of one remembered moment or conversation to another. Smelling the balsam in a cushion someone gave her, for instance, sets off a chain of memory in which "The air seemed to fracture into screens which all fell crashing in on one another in a sort of timed ballet with spears of light shooting through and something erupted in her chest with...
...This one could run on the History Channel: Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). A balanced, almost documentary view of winter 1941, including the very distinct possibility that FDR and his top brass knew about it ahead of time. On the American side, Martin Balsam, Jason Robards and Joseph Cotten as Secretary of State Stimson, and S? Yamamura and Tatsuya Mihashi manning the aerial battering ram. A full complement of directors, one American and two Japanese, make this a true learner for those whose schoolbook days are mercifully over...