Word: childhoods
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...total impact is far from harmonious; and luminous passages are mixed in with opague and soggy passages." Wolfe himself at this period was "entirely dependent as a writer upon the quality of his memory, and the quality of the memories of manhood was infinitely poorer than those of childhood. There was far less perspective, and there was not the "space, color, and time" that the memories of his youth provided...
...Wolfe's work is profoundly influenced by his youth in Asheville. Home represented the most important link to a childhood in which he had most often transcended the limitations of his being. In his concept of home, Wolfe's mother and father have a dominant role. His mother, despite her avarice, seemed to signify to Wolfe the durability and fertility of the earth itself, while his father--the W. O. Gant of Look Homeward, Angel, is the "Far Wanderer," the forever unsatisfied, Odysseus-like figure. Between these two forces, Wolfe saw himself poised, and his continual efforts to formularize these...
There's no doubt that Buechler has an eye for detail and a feeling for character, and thus it is a pity that he clouds what he has to say by a garbled narrative that is neither stream-of-consciousness nor adult conversation nor childhood recall. Although this style intrigued me to the point of distraction, I did gather that Buechler's story was an attempt to conjure up the spirit of the men who left their homes to join the Lincoln Brigade and fight Franco. I don't think the deep and unseeing idealism of these men quite comes...
...white hero is Peter McKenzie, a hulking young safari leader who can stalk a kudu, sight a Mannlicher-Schoenauer and get shikkered on gin with the best big-game hunters. The sinister shadow on his life is his childhood playmate, the black Kimani. who becomes a Mau Mau at bestial oath-taking ceremonies in a mountain hideout and butchers Peter's family in sanguinary scenes of the kind that Author Ruark insists upon describing over and over again in detail...
...bearded father's eyes by citing chapter and verse in a Bible exam. Since he is more prankster than scholar, Sholom's boyhood sometimes seems like a parade of cuffs, slaps and beatings. As one observer has pointed out, "the Jews of Eastern Europe considered childhood a phase to be got over as quickly as possible, a sort of malignant disease, the curing of which justified the use of any means." But before he is cured, Sholom pals around with a scampish set of Jewish Huckleberry Finns: Shmulik the Orphan, Gergeleh the Thief, and Feivel...