Word: moralist
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...without having to look him in the face. The philosopher also has a knack for preempting our own views of Rameau's nephew, "I believe you have brought the art of debasement to new heights," he declares, "I think I liked you better as a musician than as a moralist...
...diamond cutter stares at the stone until it discloses its inner structure, its secret. If the moralist stares long enough at Palestine/Israel, he thinks it will disclose a miracle of resolution...
...Horseman and Joshua Then and Now -- Canadian novelist Richler has employed a unique blend of humor, history and myth. Here his mixture is richer and darker than before. He is a ringmaster, making his performers do dazzling backflips without missing a beat. At the same time he is a moralist, recoiling from those who would sentimentalize the Holocaust or make power a sacrament. In the middle of the journey, Bernard Gursky seeks a biographer. "For this job," he booms, "I don't want a Canadian. I want the best." He got both...
Sociology professor and longtime Carril observer Marvin Bressler sees more than strategy. He sees a framework of philosophy behind it. "Pete is a consequential man with all these quirks. He is the only man who can talk like a 19th century moralist and not embarrass me." Carril can fan himself into instant fury over the hypocrisy of a player who invokes the name of God before a game, then insults the integrity of the officials by pretending to be the victim of a foul once on the court. "If I'm ever refereeing a game and that happens," he says...
Strong material, then; and Rezzori follows this family labyrinth back with a fine disdain for sentiment, a transparency of feeling, an acid sense of humor and a vigilant eye for nuances of love and indifference, language, landscape and class behavior. It is not a young man's (or a moralist's) book. But it is intensely moving and contains, in its winding and ironic cadences, not a slack sentence: a performance in a difficult key about the making of a near extinct kind of European...