Word: contrivedness
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However, at times Hijuelos seems to lose control of the narrative, and the style suffers as well. As the sprawling novel winds down, Hijuelos' lyricism appears to run out of steam. The disappointing ending feels a little contrived. But this failure is insignificant, and serves to underscore the magnificent, visionary...
Harvard has contrived to make an undergraduate computer-addict's life miserable. What a senseless waste of $5.1 billion.
Like Kanzi, Alex learned his vocabulary in a social setting, though the approach was more contrived. Pepperberg would, for instance, show a student a cork (one of Alex's favorite objects). If the student said the word cork, Pepperberg would give it to her; but when another word was used...
The first big mistake was failing to settle on a place and time. The front , curtain's stylized glimpse of Manhattan evokes the '40s-ish nostalgia of Guys and Dolls, while the main set, a dark framework strewn with irregular cutout boxes of vivid color, recalls the '60s -- and, more...
The second mistake was to have Peters, so good at winsome vulnerability, play a character so hard and snarly. From the opening number, in which she rages at being abandoned by a live-in boyfriend, to the contrived quarrel with her new paramour a few moments before the finale, her...