Word: overfamiliarity
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Given a potentially world-changing new technology, what does your modern-day greedy capitalist do? Build a theme park! That Barnumesque observation (a tad dated in this age of tech multibillionaires) isn't the only thing that's overfamiliar in this dull time-travel tale from the author of Jurassic Park. Here, America's favorite didact is out to learn us a thing or two about quantum mechanics and taking history seriously. His highly educated, lightly characterized academic heroes get their soft hands roughed up battling 14th century knights rather than prehistoric raptors. Crichton has clearly learned from his best...
...host of the crowded cocktail party that is his memoir, Gore Vidal is mostly on his best behavior. He seldom scandalizes his guests and rarely flings a martini into anyone's face. Courtly but gossipy, chummy but not overfamiliar, he proudly points out all the notables he has managed to attract to his soirae. Yet, while there is a good deal of pleasurable ogling to be had, Vidal's book is the sort of grand, teeming affair that leaves you feeling vaguely unsatisfied, as though you are not quite sure why he invited you in the first place...