Word: davenport
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Michael Davenport is not often on to himself. His life, a spiraling series of small revelations, major evasions and consequent breakdowns, bears down on him untidily and at unexpected moments. He manages, struggling, to still his madness. He succeeds, periodically, in publishing some poetry. Out of all three volumes, there are some indications that one poem will endure. It is called, with a combination of confessional irony and innuendo, Coming Clean...
There seems to be no way for Davenport to establish any kind of permanent, personal order, no means of giving up the grand ambitions that keep intruding on his domestic life. Sometimes, sensing this, he is seized by fury. He drinks, rages and periodically plays a game of trading punches with an unwary, usually unworthy opponent: "Hit me as hard as you can. Right here." There are moments, though, when the impossibility of his ambitions comes burning through in a way his talent never does, and then he becomes not only humble but abject. "Know what we did, Lucy...
...Michael Davenport keeps at it, perhaps unwisely. After more than one episode of psychosis and years of trying to wring poems from a life that eludes him, he marries Sarah Garvey, his daughter's high school guidance counselor, and accepts a teaching post at Billings State University in Kansas. There is no sanctuary on the open plains. The professor tries to write his way out, but finds himself describing the results to his wife and his publisher as "kind of a transitional book - kind of a plateau performance, if you see what I mean." It is a plateau that...
...contract to Davenport, the late Sergeant Waters (Whom we see and hear about in a series of flashbacks) sought to be accepted by white society in a different way. Waters not only adopted white values for himself, but also tried to force them upon his men. In his effort to better himself and the race, Waters humiliated and scorned those Blacks who did not agree with his view that the race could not move forward until it emulated the whites in every respect. Uttering lines like, "Now I've got you--one less fool for the race to be ashamed...
...similar problem faces Howard E. Rollins, Jr., best known for his Oscar-nominated role in "Ragtime", who gives a fairly convincing, though not sufficiently stirring performance as Davenport. Clad in military khakis and MacArthur-style mirror sunglasses, Rollins is appropriately impressive as the figure who inspires both white hostility and the mixed emotions of the Black soldiers who have never before seen one of their own in an officer's uniform. While the intensity builds well for the first hour, the climactic scenes just do not deliver the expected emotional payoff. After having maintained a tough and professional presence throughout...