Word: obelisk
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...with outspread, welcoming arms coming out of the body of the church. To round out his grand plan, Bernini placed 140 statues of saints, each 12 ft. in height, around the rim. With its two fountains, each 45 ft. high, and its center fixed by the massive, 320-ton obelisk that Emperor Caligula had brought from Heliopolis. the finished square was so vast that it has been called "the first large open space within a city...
...battle shrine at Carabobo, 120 miles away. Then, before a crowd of 100,000, the two strongmen dedicated the Avenue of Heroes, a gaudy, neo-Grecian plaza fronting the mammoth Armed Forces Club. The avenue's two 100-ft. towers, six reflecting pools, 84 giant urns, 50-ft. obelisk and dozens of statues and fountains cost the nation at least...
...beer gardens. The book has many moments of Rabelaisian vulgarity, including a hilarious bordello scene, but they seem deliberately injected for shock value. As for the symbolism and the irony (though Remarque says no symbolism was intended), they could scarcely be more obvious-the most valuable stone, a black obelisk, winds up as the marker over a prostitute's grave, and in a post-World War II epilogue, only the madhouse and the maternity hospital are left undamaged. Remarque has long ago mastered a direct, insistent style that keeps the pages turning even when he seems all but mesmerized...
...BLACK OBELISK (434 pp.)-Erich Maria Remarque - Harcourt, Brace...
...tranquillity result in a strange sort of book. The atmosphere is as febrile as a manic ward on the upbeat. The poor and aged commit suicide every day, but the tombstone firm does not prosper because the monuments are worth more than they are sold for. The characters in Obelisk are not especially odd, but the times make everyone seem to be living off the top of his head. Ludwig divides his time between beautiful Geneviève at the insane asylum and a levelheaded, strong-bodied girl acrobat who wants a man able to buy some groceries...