Word: everymanic
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Everyman Figure. The task is beyond him. Eventually he presents his publisher with the jumbled chronicle of another American prisoner who also survived the raid, as well as some of the horrors of peace and prosperity. Too archly named Billy Pilgrim, the second survivor is hardly a real character-"there are almost no characters in this book," Vonnegut says, "because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces." But he does very well as something between a consumer-age Candide and a Vonnegut Everyman figure...
...same time, he has become a kind of middle-class everyman, relatively devoid of regional associations. Humphrey retains a geographic identification with Minnesota that is more traditional in American politicians...
Novelist Armah states his dilemmas so passionately that they come to carry the force of a parable. His Everyman numbly but stubbornly seeks an honorable-a human-way to survive the "endless round that shrinks a man to something less than the size and the meaning of flying ants." Relentlessly staging a Job-like trial-by-humiliation, Armah daubs "the man" with spit, phlegm and sweat. Rot and stink-the look and smell of corruption-rise up from every page. It is a classmate, Koomson, who perfumes all the putrefaction with the sweet smell of his success as a self...
...Dean Gitter wonderful as Death. Grinning impersonally, asleep, or reminiscing about the good old days of the Great Plague, Gitter's creation is compelling and convincingly pragmatic. Jones as Everyman holds the center of attention firmly, but much of the first act could be played with less method intensity, more of the light farce Mayer is wont to introduce on occasion. Last night, Iver's tightly-knit band, his stylized compositions and arrangements, and extraordinary singer George Leh, came as close to stealing a show as anybody comes working with Mayer...
...really have nothing specific to say. The electric Everyman has hit town, it provides our summer with the ending of our wildest dreams, its faulted but perceptive vision is our gain, and you'd be nutty not to get there fast. More to follow Tuesday of a somewhat more analytic nature...