Word: elan
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Kotlowitz means to recover the moments of profound transition, when the Jewish life of Eastern Europe began to be borne forward into the 20th century. Other writers-most notably Isaac Bashevis Singer-have handled this familiar theme with more versatility, more dramatic elan. Not all of the novel is totally alive, but Kotlowitz writes extraordinarily well at times. His act of conjuration is clear-eyed, without a trace of sentimentality...
...Mafia leaders not only generate their own mystique but share in it. They have a good time, as Gay Talese reports, yukking it up over TV reruns of The Untouchables. They give high marks for verisimilitude and general elan to films like Bullitt, in which they admire Steve McQueen's resilient cool. Authors Puzo and Talese are esteemed for their portraits of Mafiosi as "men of respect" (although Mafiosi feel that Talese, especially, was taken in by his sources). The alltime Mafia favorite, however, is the movie The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Basil Rathbone, who plays the villainous...
...deter her from winning the gold medal on total points. The freest spirit of all was U.S. Skater Janet Lynn. A pixy in pink, the tiny (5 ft. 2 in., 108 Ibs.) teen-ager whirled through her double Salchows and camel spins with grace and a kind of smiling elan, despite a fall, to win the freestyle and a bronze medal overall...
...Kennedy Justice, Victor Navasky both mourns and explains the absence of miracles. He also coolly outlines and assesses what he regards as Kennedy's limited achievements: the elan with which he infected all echelons, the crackdown on organized crime, his ever-expanding view of his department's mission. Obviously, Navasky is no blind Kennedy fan. His arguments are credible, his reportage exhaustive, his approach as dispassionate as writing about the Kennedys customarily allows. His book also considers the latter-day liberal's ambiguous feelings about the use of power. Once things seemed simple: you elected good guys...
Harvard's attack was slow at the start, and many rushes deteriorated into dribbling exhibitions. The Columbia goalie played his position with a little too much elan, however, and the Crimson's first two goals found him way out of position...