Word: novels
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Updike's prose, as usual, is like the posteriorof one of his protagonist's many women:"gray-clad...firm but a touch more ample than [is]locally fashionable..." Though costumed in theheavily scented, rarefied air of the uptownapartments of the pretentious and over-educated,the novel, in keeping with the spirit of its(anti)hero, is at heart an ever-so-slightlydoddering, luscious, highly sexualized andself-satirical backwards glance at a ratherunremarkable life of letters. His absolutelysucculent, if somewhat condescending descriptionsof leggy, perpetually nude women aside, Updikeexcels in dialogue, cocktail party dialogue, rifewith the sarcastic, incisive mental commentary ofBech. Some...
...Beloved, the highly-anticipated adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel, slavery is explored in a subtle, almost metaphorical fashion. It is an exercise in psychology, exploring the mind of Morrison's steel-willed protagonist Sethe (Oprah Winfrey), a former slave who now lives as a free woman in Ohio in the 1870s. Beloved is a handsome, classy production that is distinguished in every possible way, but it is also a cold film. The screenplay grapples admirably with Morrison's convoluted narrative but can never get to the heart of it. The saving grace of the movie is the renowned cast...
...Publishers Weekly blurb for the novel Billy Dead notes that it is "reminiscent of Dorothy Allison," and on the surface this comparison is very apt. Like Allison's most famous work, Bastard out of Carolina, Lisa Reardon's debut novel deals with the effect of abuse on the children of a working-class white family and is narrated by one of the children, Ray, now grown up. Ultimately, however, for various reasons Billy Dead is a weaker and less interesting work than its predecessor...
...attempting to be original, has eschewed using the vengeful, violent Jean--who in her viciousness somewhat resembles the protagonist of Bastard, Ruth Anne Boatwright--as the narrator, instead picking her ineffectual brother Ray. This could have been an interesting switch in points of view, and the structure of the novel, as a series of flashbacks illuminating the present-day situation, could have worked...
Unfortunately, the patches of annoying or simply bad writing mar the novel considerably. For example, Ray continually has "conversations" with inanimate objects, ghosts (such as Billy's) and animals. These are included, in some cases, for no discernible reason, such as this "exchange" with Jean's stuffed animal, the poodle Bojo: "'Scared, Bojo?' I ask him. `No,' he answers, staring straight forward." The author also leaves the reader in unnecessary suspense about what happened during the crucial "perfect summer, awful summer," includes characters with dubious importance to the plot and tells the reader too much about them. This...