Word: inflecting
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...witness to his mother's violent murder, the protagonist has survived in the Medieval town of Madrid by his wits, with the guidance of some of Castile's most suspicious characters. These include the blind and bumbling beggar Pero Menaque, an accidental prophet who reappears throughout the novel to inflect the protagonist's course. He leads Cabezon through the darkest, dirtiest quarters of Madrid, introducing him to the beggars, scoundrels, prostitutes and pariahs that constitute Madrid's other life...
There are moments when Morrison can inflect a lyric like Mose Allison, other times when he can spin out a blues line like John Lee Hooker. It's a daft and reckless mix, but Morrison makes it work through sheer force of spirit, what he once called, in a memorable song, the "inarticulate speech of the heart." His rhythms are irresistible, his lyrics like an amalgam of Yeats, Kerouac and Chuck Berry. The Irish tenor John McCormack said what distinguishes an important voice from a good one is the indescribable but crucial quality that he termed "the yarrrrragh." The yarrrrragh...