Word: flame
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...culture that has long been judged second-rate by the U.S. Out of pride as much as affection, we are reluctant to give up our past. Our notoriety in the U.S. has been our resistance to assimilation. The guarded symbol of Hispanic-American culture has been the tongue of flame: Spanish. But the remarkable legacy Hispanics carry from Latin America is not language -- an inflatable skin -- but breath itself, capacity of soul, an inclination to live. The genius of Latin America is the habit of | synthesis. We assimilate...
...heart attack, Paulie sets aside her resolve -- until she uncovers his passing liaison with a would-be Mme. de Pompadour of the shopping malls. That propels her into New York City, where Son Jason, a punk-rock musician who lives in a Bronx tenement, and his pregnant girlfriend Flame, nee Sara, add to the imbroglio. But, after all manner of marital peccadilloes, Wolitzer (In the Palomar Arms) spins her fifth novel into a bittersweet tribute as the Flaxes finally celebrate their anniversary. "We waltzed around the perimeters of the living room," Paulie recalls, "the winners in an arduous marathon dance...
...fading flowers turn into apples, offering a thousand fulfillments: apple pie, apple cake, applesauce, apple cider, apple butter, apple jelly, apple dumplings, apple tarts, apple pandowdy. Cut into pieces, the apple tree can be carpentered into a table, or at the least its kindlings will give off a splendid flame. Left quite alone, the tree will blossom white again next spring...
...require about tax law and outlawry in contemporary Japan. But arcana have their own peculiar charms -- and their special usefulness in Itami's larger design. When his single-minded characters are thwarted in the pursuit of their hearts' odd desires, they have a tendency to burst into sudden, angry flame. And to elicit hysterical responses from bystanders astounded when a quiet oddball turns into a bright-burning fireball...
According to Romantic superstition, poets either flame out young or gutter into unheralded old age. A related notion holds that popularity is intrinsically vulgar and hence earned, always, by inferior poems. The facts largely argue against this mythology, and the accomplishments of Richard Wilbur, 67, make it look silly. For more than 40 years, Wilbur has written poetry that garnered both critical acclaim and public recognition, including a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. He has taught at Harvard, Wellesley, Wesleyan and Smith, and generously given foreign authors an English-speaking readership, translating works by, among others, Anna Akhmatova...