Word: detailing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...enough force to power the story. This is Beattie's first novel in five years (she has published one collection of short stories since 1990's Picturing Will), and so a real disappointment. She was an authentic voice of the late 1970s and '80s, with a particular talent for detail and dialogue. Can it be that, five years into the '90s, Beattie's technique of constructing character by naming and labeling is dated? That, unfortunately, is the verdict on this book...
...make sure The Lost World would be a best seller. But he got the science right anyway. Like many of his earlier novels--from The Andromeda Strain, his killer-bacteria thriller that prefigured The Hot Zone by 25 years, to Jurassic Park--The Lost World is suffused with scientific detail that has clearly been lifted from the latest research journals. Yet as a novelist Crichton isn't bound by the usual caveats that academics are forced to issue; he can and does take the most speculative of theories and run with them as if they were proved...
...morning of Aug. 8. I don't know Amman very well because on previous trips all our arrangements were taken care of by Jordanian protocol. It was rather difficult to reach a hotel. We found a taxi, and I asked somebody from our security detail to get into the taxi and take us to a hotel...
...there was a fistfight between Saddam's brother-in-law Luay Talfah and Watban's nephew Nemir Diham. Subsequently Luay told Uday, who was at another party. Uday rushed in and started firing indiscriminately. The host was shot, and also Watban, and two members of the President's security detail. Some Gypsy dancers and other guests were shot. Eight women were killed or wounded. Uday is well known for such behavior. It was late at night, and alcohol had affected him. Such incidents have taken place in the past, and nobody held him accountable...
...temptation to flaunt the detritus of years of reading, watching and listening to the culture. In the opening five pages are references to Richard Nixon, Elvis Presley, Henry Kissinger and Marianne Faithfull. Though an authentic voice of the late 1970s and '80s, with a particular talent for detail and dialogue, Beattie's style unfortunately has become dreary, unforceful, and dated...