Word: blend
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Perhaps the most laborious writing effort was undertaken by the accountant, J.R. Sprechman, whose first novel, Caribe, (Dutton; 280 pages; $17.95) took him decades. The result is anything but weary. The narrative has the sheen of quicksilver, and it manages to blend brutal scenes of New York City drug wars, hints of the supernatural reminiscent of a South American fable and political intrigue worthy of John le Carre. The scene is a haunted, Haiti-like island, and the four main characters are a blunt Manhattan policeman, a slippery arms dealer, a volatile Caribbean dictator whose paranoia is justified...
...kitsch." Maybe he means for us to see the faltering but brave Amelia and Pippo as surrogates for himself, still worthy of sober interest, maybe even moral admiration, although the headlines now go to younger directorial stars. Certainly he insists on pumping out more of the "Felliniesque," his trademark blend of the grotesque and the surreal, than we need to get his point that TV is vulgar and coarsening. More moving is his presentation of two carefully imagined archetypes of aging. Masina's Amelia is a woman grown more emotionally compact with the years, defending herself against their onslaught with...
...these ads aren't just evidence of her popular success, but another means of expression. The unique nature of her work makes it irreducible to any single medium. Anderson herself comes as close to describing it as anyone: "Laurie Anderson has been baffling audiences for years with her special blend of music, slides, films, tapes, films (did I say films?), hand gestures, and more...
UNLIKE LAST YEAR, Page and Rodgers are learning to blend their talents and create solid music. What is still missing, unfortunately, is true creativity. Page should contribute more than he does here, relieving Rodgers of the main songwriting burden. Page should also use his experience as Zep's board man and take over the production, currently shared by Page and Rodgers. Get Page into the music more, and the Firm should rise from a band with talent to a band worthy of Zeppelin's fame...
...recent months Gorbachev has been removing Brezhnev-era holdovers with a blend of maneuver and muscle. Grigory Romanov, the Politburo member responsible for the Soviet Union's military-industrial complex, who reportedly tried to block Gorbachev's rise to power and became the target of a whispering campaign about alleged alcoholism, retired from the Politburo last July. One day later Andrei Gromyko, who had served as Foreign Minister since 1957, was promoted to the honorific post of President. Last month Admiral Sergei Gorshkov, who had commanded the Soviet navy since 1956, was replaced. Nikolai Tikhonov, who had been Premier since...