Word: fictions
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...because of, what the narrator calls "my divagations and aberrations, my absurdities," More Die of Heartbreak crackles with intelligence and wit. The novel is not only proof that Bellow, 72, can live up to his own standards; it is also a reminder of how diminished a thing postwar American fiction would have been without...
Some historians have faulted chairman Laiou, who is a professor of Byzantine history, for not providing the department with strong enough leadership, and allowing the internal divisions to cripple the American wing. But Laiou calls such statements fiction: "This is a department where there are honest disagreements about any number of things, but that does not make for a crisis. As far as I'm concerned there is no crisis. My God, Robinson Hall is standing up beautifully. We've got all the measurable signs which are positive...
...ideal world, the mass market's appetites for fiction would be satisfied by the likes of Mrs. Randall; it's conservatively written without being dull, covers almost as much territory as a Michener novel, is shorter, and won't make a literate reader cringe every third page...
Unfortunately, Leland is trapped in the airy territory of hardback fiction, where tastes are as refined as sales are poor. If he's lucky, some canny product get the film rights and turn it into a mini-series which those with brain cells can actually watch. Or perhaps he can persuade Avon books to buy it up, put on a slightly racy cover hinting of decadent Southern sensuality and drag a few suburban housewives into the realm of real literature. Otherwise, Mrs. Randall will remain a pleasure reserved only for those in the know...
...well from the wrath of the traditionalists, who resist the intrusion of originality on their passion for the endless restatement of stale generic conventions. Deliver them instead to the audience that will be galvanized, as the filmmakers were, by the chance to reimagine all the cliches of crime fiction...