Word: chaptered
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With the exception of the fairly predictable revelations leading up to the murder of Becky's husband, the novel ignores plot development in order to concentrate on an internal examination of the lives of these women. Each chapter is devoted to the viewpoint of one of the three characters, a device that is evidently supposed to subtly reveal a fundamental longing for autonomy common to the women despite their superficial differences...
That's about it. Not another idea or phenomenon disturbs the flow -- that's probably the right word -- of the narration. As with any extended porn, the book is a highly elaborate tease, sillier and more exotic with each chapter. It's not ugly stuff, as such things go; Strine isn't a rapist or even a thief, though he does steal peeks. Ogling is really all he's interested in, and all that Baker seems to feel readers need to sustain their interest. That's fairly patronizing and more than a little feebleminded, though maybe he is right. Still...
Documents in Cohen's divorce suit also say he is pursuing Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection according to the MBTA suit...
...diva in particular, Maria Callas, is given an entire chapter. "The Callas Cult" discusses what Koestenbaum admits is a gay phenomenon much larger than that of the opera queen. Her life (more, specifically, her affair with Aristotle Onassis) assumed tabloid proportions; she was mainstream enough to be mentioned in Marilyn Monroe movies; and her personality, both bitchy and warm in practically the same instant, is well reputed. He life, in short, was an opera unto itself. In the interview, Koestenbaum agrees that the dead Callas seems even more of a cultural power than she did while she was alive...
...larger in the gay community than just opera queens, that of the professionals in smarmy suits, the successful businesspeople, etc. Koestenbaum, though claiming that his book is "an elegy to the opera queen," addresses the larger question of a universal appeal of opera to gays in general. His last chapter, entitled "A Pocket Guide to Queer Moment's in Opera," is a seemingly random (and highly personal) collection of instances in well-known operas that smack of ambiguity and promise beneath the surface...