Word: overwrought
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...past is not simply a dead history," George Eliot wrote in the sweeping novel Middlemarch. "It is a still quivering part of himself." As an executive summary of A Life Apart - the complex, occasionally overwrought but ultimately satisfying fiction debut of TIME contributor Neel Mukherjee - that pretty much fits the bill. The book was first published as Past Continuous in India, where, along with Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies, it was joint winner of the 2008 Vodafone Crossword Book Award, the country's most prominent prize for English-language writing. The newly entitled edition is slightly revised and tighter...
...profound proves devastating as the Swede only discusses the happy, superficial lives of his family and does not even mention grieving for his father. During the dinner scene, Roth juxtaposes paragraphs in which the Swede relates inane family anecdotes against extended interior monologues tracking Zuckerman’s overwrought reactions to the disappointing way the meal develops. The chapter concludes with the narrator’s self-questioning rant, “Why the appetite to know this guy?... You’re craving depths that don’t exist. This guy is the embodiment of nothing...
Sometimes it takes a 3-year-old to teach you that you've been a ninny about sports. I've never really enjoyed figure skating that much. Traditionally, I've joined the quadrennial snark parade that accompanies the Olympic event. I've poked fun at the costumes and overwrought facial expressions in the name of "artistry"; I've pictured the judges taking bribes from skating officials right behind the kiss-and-cry curtain...
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was cheap, terrible at giving presents, attention-hungry, unsettled and ultimately not true to his ideals. Oh - and he cheated on his wife. The last part we know from his overwrought confession on national TV. The rest we know because the wife he cheated on tells us about it in her new memoir, Staying True...
...reaction seems a tad overwrought, it may be because the magic isn't just about what up to 8 million viewers watch every Wednesday. It's also in the copycatting that Glee inspires off screen. With an assist from other corners of pop culture - including a karaoke contest on Oprah and NBC's first-ever a cappella-oriented reality show, premiering this month - Glee is inspiring its most hard-core fans to do some singing of their own. Once the butt of jokes everywhere except on a handful of college campuses, a cappella is making inroads all over...