Word: farrago
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...ways through history. Aksyonov impressively spreads out a panorama of suffering, but he overlays it with shameless melodrama, unconvincing uplift and grotesque humor. Readers who sling their hammock, move their samovar onto their veranda and settle down for an old-fashioned summer read may be distracted by a narrative farrago that includes a scene in which Dr. Gradov nearly wins the Order of Lenin for giving Stalin an emergency enema...
This time Stoppard climaxes a splendid intellectual farrago with a poignant image of two couples dancing, literally and metaphysically, in the dark. One embraces in the dawn of the romantic 19th century, the other at the twilight of the nihilistic 20th. Both are confronting the little tragedy of death and the grand tragedy of entropy, the inevitable darkening and chilling of the universe. This dual moment, and the glittering double story that precedes it, are full of more affection and compassion than Stoppard has ever shown before...
With its purloined letters, incestuous jealousies and galloping neuroses, A Time of Destiny spins enough plot for a year of Falcon Crest, then filches its climax from Hitchcock's Vertigo and Saboteur. So how come nothing works? Maybe because this family farrago is played for keeps, instead of for the laughs it accidentally evokes...
What could be worse than an honorable failure? An embarrassing failure. Nine months ago CBS invented one: The Morning Program, a relentlessly cheery farrago of entertainment and information that featured stand-up comedy, personal ads and an intrusive studio audience. Scorned by critics, the show plummeted in the ratings to a record low (10% of the morning audience). Prior to the show's debut, says one longtime CBS producer, "everyone thought we had the lowest ratings you could have in the morning. The Morning Program proved us wrong." Indeed, its abysmal numbers were hurting the following shows of affiliate stations...
...handfuls of friends and associates, but the keen thing about it is all the characters are played by just one Johnnie, an Edward Duke. A definite topper, one in a million. Two of the blokes are actually women, but there's none of that pumps-and-padded foundation farrago...