Word: leander
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Such a clime, and such a corner of the world, is likely to produce a special type of ruler, and in Plaquemines it did: Leander Perez, cigar-chomping, white-suited boss of the parish for almost half a century. He ruled like an arrogant and protective plantation owner, although he preferred sowing oil leases to crops. He fought federal intervention with Faulknerian tenacity, a battle that began over control of oil reserves and evolved into a crusade against "forced integration," which he saw as the plot of an international Communist conspiracy. Taunted Governor Earl Long: "What are you going...
...Leander Perez's power has passed down to one of his sons, 55-year-old Chalin, president of the five-man parish Commission Council. Unlike his flamboyant father, Chalin comes across as a dark-suited conservative lawyer. His is not the voice of a segregationist, but of a typical official with very rich constituents. "We are one of the most overemployed areas in the United States," he says. And it is true that there are plenty of jobs for blacks as well as whites in the oil and sulfur companies, in fishing and orange growing. "We try to maintain...
...suburban quarter-acre and a maid. For millions, both dreams have meant a significant step up. But for the major characters in John Cheever's fiction, suburbia is a definite step down. His Wapshot family, for example, traced its lineage to colonial New England and to the patriarchal Leander Wapshot who advised his clan to "bathe in cold water every morning. Relish the love of a gentle woman. Trust in the Lord...
...Cheever's suburbias, trying to live up to Leander's morality usually results in grotesquely declasse behavior. Cold water is rarely drunk, let alone bathed in. The ideal gentle woman frequently turns out to be a lusting destroyer of traditional order. The Lord appears to have abandoned the lawns and shopping malls to nymphs and satyrs...
...lies about turning down the Law Review and writing a thesis on Einstein, Lanier says Pavlovich made other, equally outrageous claims. Spiro said he was the great grand-nephew of Czar Nicholas of Russia, the nephew of a man who "owned most of lower Louisiana," and the godson of Leander Perez, a notoriously powerful and corrupt Plaquemines parish politician. Lanier began to get suspicious, but it was Spiro's statement that he was an avid scuba diver that really destroyed his credibility. One of Lanier's partners was a scuba enthusiast, and fooled Spiro into expanding on the subject, about...