Word: novelã
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...paralyses the narrative. He despairingly thinks, “It occurred to me that rehearsing loss to dull the loss might bring about the very loss I was hoping to avert.” This constant act of stagnant, empty rehearsal is emblematic of the psychological development in the novel??the characters constantly strain towards expression, retracting or repeating statements, but never move towards a new idea or significant development...
...family and job, Tim walks for hours—unsure of his destination, unable to stop, and unconcerned with his bodily pains. Eventually these hours become years. Despite countless visits to doctors and more dubious specialists, the cause of the walking remains unknown and the disease unnamed, thus the novel??s title...
Possibly the most significant light appears at the end of the first chapter, when Gatsby reaches for the distant green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. The novel??s enduring symbol of the American dream, the green light is paid homage in a lovely moment in which a backlit Gatsby leaves the office, and a small, single green light is visible on the wall. Though it manages to evoke the sorrow and impossibility of Gatsby’s life, doomed to mortality by his idealistic dream, the moment is far from dispiriting?...
...enigmatic behavior of the supporting characters would rob the novel of its internal consistency. But Tassie’s observations of the people around her are often skewed by her misunderstandings of her new city and her employers, and the way their behavior confuses her is crucial to the novel??s concern...
...emptiness, decay and missed social connections should not imply that “A Gate at the Stairs” lacks humor. It is riotously funny, and not in the sardonic, bitter way of more traditional tragicomedies. Its puns and its politics are bold and even ostentatious, but this novel??s significance lies in its tightly constructed details and its singular main character—irksome, charismatic and wholly convincing...