Word: moralists
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Mario Puzo's classic Godfather recipe combined zesty ethnic ingredients with basic American free enterprise. Good and evil were all in the family. Social values were relative, if not hypocritical. Puzo is not your average moralist. He does not pontificate from the high ground. His view of human nature is subterranean, not to say labyrinthine. The twists and turns in his new novel might have easily confused the Minotaur...
...book's thesis is stark: "The manipulation of America's political and economic system by Japanese and other foreign interests has reached the point that it threatens our national sovereignty." What distinguishes Choate from other recent critics of Japan is that he is, at the core, a moralist; to him, the avidity with which former government officials are willing to work for foreign interests symbolizes the erosion of America's "civic virtue." His is a critique of the familiar, entirely legal, Washington revolving door, recast in patriotic terms...
...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...