Word: humorous
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...desertion of Muriel for an attempted reconciliation with his wife. But the tone and dynamics of this scene are indistinguishable from the rest of a film that looks as if it had been shot in a brownout. Depression, obviously, is not amusing. But depressives, as the history of humor from Mark Twain to S.J. Perelman proves, can be. Anyway, it should be possible to analyze an illness without falling prey...
...sense of humor helped. That's what keeps me going in tough times. There's no situation that doesn't have its ludicrous side. Even failure. To understand that simple reality is probably the first sign of maturity. Besides, I'm a pessimist at heart. I never expected to be promoted, and it always surprised me. When nice things happen to me, it is quite exhilarating...
...victory. Says she: "I have been elected bishop of the church, not a symbol or a token." Her emphasis will be on the job that she has been called to do, Harris insists, not on her precedent-shattering election. However, two years ago, Harris observed with typically caustic humor that any woman who joined the Episcopal hierarchy would need "a high tolerance for indecisiveness, an inordinate amount of patience with unimaginative leadership . . . and an appetite for ambiguity." In the coming months, such qualities will surely be tested in Harris herself, and in the fractious Anglican Communion...
Davies juggles these plots with consistent good humor and remarkable insider erudition. The latter should come as no surprise, given the author's extensive background in the theater and academe; as a young man he was an actor in Britain's Old Vic Company, and he later served 20 years as the master of Massey College at the University of Toronto. The novel is crammed with funny renditions of wheezy professorial badinage and flamboyant dramatic monologues. But it is Davies' own voice that seems most memorable: confident, unhurried, interested and amused. Late in the novel, on the brink...
...Restic and Carm Cozza: This year's Harvard-Yale football contest, dubiously referred to as The Game, was highlighted not by stellar play--both teams entered with losing records--but by the humor of the coaches. Restic, Harvard's gray-haired giant, entertained the post-game media throng with jokes about how he and Cozza decide on the winner of The Game before it starts...