Word: cleverness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...almost palpable. She stumbles over her words, retreats to the corner and darts her eyes around the room as if tapping out an S.O.S Catherine's accomplishments are few, and she is inevitably disparaged by a father who asserts that "You are good for nothing unless you are clever." Catherine has so internalized his belief in her inadequacies that she insists to her aunt she never thinks of love or marriage. You know what that means. Into the Sloper brownstone swoops Morris Townsend (Diego Arciniegas), a distant cousin-of-a-cousin just returned from some months in Europe. Translation...
Still, most readers of airport paperbacks, the kind of good, sturdy trash that will see you through four hours at O'Hare, would say of Westlake, "Sure, clever fellow, writes detective stories." He doesn't, however. In the long list of his 60-some novels, the author recalls no detectives, no "police procedurals," as cop stories are called in the trade, no lawyer novels. Why? Mildly, but definitely, Westlake gives a surprising answer: "Authority is doing fine. They don't need my help." Spy novels, then? "No, they were never right for me. Those guys are working...
Buddha taught the use of compassion to relieve suffering. Ritual, dogma and temples are irrelevant, red herrings on the path to insight. Karma and reincarnation are merely clever carrot-and-stick tools for people who need them. Most of us can do without them. TOM KOWALSKI Atlanta...
...only through clever filmmaking hanky-pankery such as computer composites of foreground and background that he is made to appear to be in China in Red Corner. Although such steps were not necessary for other actors and crew, the film on the whole has the feel of a fairly good court-room drama that has been uprooted and transplanted to China through the magic of cinema. It is as though someone used computers and special filters to see what Regarding Henry would be like if it took place in the Far East...
...such individual action is extremely difficult. This shunting of the place of individual action into the realm of moral and family life should not be viewed as a descent. Some, if not many, individuals may be better suited to other activities. They may be funny but not courageous, clever but not generous. However, whether they will it or not, these individuals now find that it is their conduct at home and in church that matters...