Word: odd
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...that Paul Theroux's seventh novel is a joyride, but it is old-fashioned entertainment in the mode perfected by Graham Greene. Theroux sets an odd quartet to housekeeping in seedy south London. They are not blood relatives; they hope to be related by the blood of others. Pa is Valentine Hood, a former U.S. State Department employee cashiered for punching an official of the South Vietnamese government. Filled with hatred, he stays high on opium and waits for a call to action from the provisional wing of the I.R.A. Mum is Mayo, who has ties to the Provos...
...resident of record, but the apartment-and the spirit of the girl- take control of Trelkovsky. His life becomes an accumulation of odd incidents: puzzling, nasty little encounters with neighbors, episodes of bizarre mystery inside the apartment. One night he pulls a tooth from a hole in his wall. On another, he sees people standing still, staring at him for hours from the toilet facilities across the courtyard. Paranoia increases, reality slips away. Trelkovsky starts painting his nails, buys a wig wears a dress of his predecessor that he finds hanging in the closet. He suspects a plot and expects...
...ratifies decisions taken offstage, with television cameras on hand to make the action public. And the final apotheosis of a convention is now a televised spectacular, "Meet Your Next President." Television and the political party are thus engaged in a reluctant arms-length collaboration that exemplifies television's odd split personality, combining private enterprise and public service. Television begins the week as a persistent inquisitor and ends up as the patient conduit of a celebration. As solutions go, this one is ramshackle, Rube Goldbergishly American, but has its merits. The print journalists, though second-class citizens on the sidelines...
Other conflicts involve longstanding secular grievances. They are perhaps primarily not religious so much as they are exertions for recognition and even survival. Yet the element of religion gives all these wars an odd phosphorescence. What is important is usually not a deep spiritual faith but rather an intense loyalty to the religious community. The phenomenon has something to do with a clinging to identity, especially in such enclaves as Northern Ireland and Lebanon, whose national identities are fractured and cannot in themselves command patriotic followings. One of Egypt's leading intellectuals, Political Scientist Magdi Wahba, sees signs everywhere...
...J.P.L.'s mission control last week could not help being caught up in the mounting excitement about the Viking landing. Said NASA Director James Fletcher: "Can you imagine the tension building as we wait for the first pictures from the Mars surface? What will we see? Those odd, vertical upthrusts of rock we've detected on radar maps, or something like an eye peering back at us? It's all very exciting...