Word: compendium
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...deft parallels between the paranoia induced by a serial killer and the mania generated by McCarthy-era blacklisting. The plot is merely serviceable and the cast of characters sprawling rather than sharply defined, but the machine-gun barrage of witticisms from its formidable ladies is either a well-researched compendium of bons mots or a wholly convincing imitation...
...nation's second richest regional kitchen. The L.L. Bean Book of New New England Cookery, by Judith and Evan Jones (Random House; 669 pages; $22.50), informs us that it continues to expand. Judging by some of the newer dishes, that is not always for the better. This huge, handsome compendium, written for the Maine-based mail-order outfitter, is at its best with traditional specialties: rhubarb cakes and cobblers; codfish in chowders, cakes and Portuguese stews; and all the lobster, salmon and blueberry treats so rarely found elsewhere in the country. But the italicized new is the operative word...
Jones does not simply drop names; he hurls editions of Who's Who. He is a compendium of tittle-tattle, from what the ladies found so impressive about Porfirio Rubirosa to what turned Tallulah on. Scenes of East Side literary salons contrast to the human litter of West 42 Street, innocence flirts with cynicism, and beauty is played off against corruption. Where invention beckons or libel laws counsel, there are fictional characters. Jones himself appears to be a perverse projection of a Capote who might have been...
Unlike its U.S. counterpart, the Soviet charter is not the law against which other laws are judged. Instead, an exhaustive compendium of legal codes takes precedence, and the Soviet Supreme Court is not empowered to override such laws by invoking the constitution. "There is no system of checks and balances whereby the judiciary can say to the legislative branch, 'You can't do that, it's against the constitution," says Harold Berman, a Soviet legal expert at Emory University...
...representatives of Western "civilization" in primitive contexts, where their normal habits of mind and behavior can only mislead them. Doubtless he saw Allie as a bracing variant on his favorite sort of central figure. Perhaps Weir saw in this sacred monster the makings of dark comedy; Allie is a compendium of the cliches of liberaloid social criticism, rich in potential self-parody. For besides creating an Eden for his family, Allie has another, grander dream: the construction of a huge ice-making facility he has designed. Surely there is something funny about a man building an ice palace to serve...