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Word: offing (lookup in dictionary) (lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
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The kind of cheap inspiration imparted by this excerpt from the weakest section of The Cure at Troy is perfect for earnest and boring lightweights like Doubletake Magazine which takes the same quote as its mantra but one would really expect more substance from Gordimer, whose fiction breathes with implacable...

Author: By Joshua Perry, CONTRIBUTING WRITER | Title: Nobel Winner Rests on Laurels | 12/17/1999 | See Source »

Throughout her career, Gordimer has been a paragon of authorly virtue: a white writer in apartheid South Africa, she stood staunchly with what she always calls the "liberation movement." Her fiction exposes the bleeding heart of South African society, and her eye is precise and unflinching. This is not to...

Author: By Joshua Perry, CONTRIBUTING WRITER | Title: Nobel Winner Rests on Laurels | 12/17/1999 | See Source »

In sad contrast, there is almost nothing of a revealing and striking honesty in Living in Hope and History. In most of her speeches and essays, Gordimer settles for platitudes and truisms rather than incisive commentary. Of course, in two or three of these selections, we do get some flashes...

Author: By Joshua Perry, CONTRIBUTING WRITER | Title: Nobel Winner Rests on Laurels | 12/17/1999 | See Source »

Unfortunately, there is very little in this compilation to rival "1959." Instead, there is a miasma of literary criticism and historical analysis: in both genres, Gordimer chooses summary over insight. In References: The Codes of Culture making fun of the title would be shooting fish in a barrel we come...

Author: By Joshua Perry, CONTRIBUTING WRITER | Title: Nobel Winner Rests on Laurels | 12/17/1999 | See Source »

The great thing about Gordimer's fiction has always been her success in stripping away the layers of pretense and denial and dishonesty that are built up around contemporary lives and societies. She shows the reader universal truths that are nonetheless elusive: her talent is to unveil revelation. In the...

Author: By Joshua Perry, CONTRIBUTING WRITER | Title: Nobel Winner Rests on Laurels | 12/17/1999 | See Source »

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