Word: details
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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THESE PRECARIOUS BALANCES of cleverness and emotion, introspection and detail, work much better in the secondary plot. Seventeen-year-old Tibba Fix's portion overflows with the security of books and imaginary sex surrounding every bright, shy teenager. Her thoughts are full of real objects--food, pianos, imaginary lovers: even her memories of childhood are more poignant than her father's because she remembers real events: slamming doors, a policeman's arrival...
There were two calls, very much the same, and after the first there was no need to go into detail...
...burgeoning self-awareness as her husband learns of a deception she committed to save his life. His unsympathetic and selfish reaction leads her to question the basis for her marriage and her place in her society. The major problem with the traditional feminist interpretation is that much of the detail has become dated: turn of the century Norway is not 1980s United States. The Lowell production circumvents this potential flaw by emphasizing the underlying human relationships rather than the specifics of Nora's situation. Nora's struggle is transformed from that of an idealogue spouting chain-breaking rhetoric, into that...
...most compelling portions of the book, indeed, are those which convey the unseemly, but too often prevalent, aspects of Cobb's personality. He was, for one thing, an unreconstructed racist of the most virulent nature. Alexander recounts in sickening detail the numerous incidents during which Cobb would unmercifully browbeat some poor Black busboy or servant. Cobb also had a streak of hot temper that plagued him throughout his entire career and afterwards, making him a host of enemies and dissolving much of the reservoir of good will that would undoubtedly have accumulated among fans and teammates owing to his spectacular...
...foul lines rather than the action outside the ballpark. He paints an engrossing picture of a game in transition from the dead-ball era of stolen bases to the Ruthian age of the homerun, but never really shows the effects this had on baseball as a business, except to detail the contract feuds between Cobb and Tiger owner Frank Navin. He portrays Cobb as an ugly racist, but doesn't ever explore what Cobb thought about the desegregation of the game after he retired. Answering these questions might have provided an interesting glimmer of insight into American pop culture during...