Word: panorama
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...between 1925 and 1945, Generations moves from disaster to disaster as despotic communism devours its own and Germany attacks and destroys millions more. Members of the Gradov family, led by Dr. Boris Nikitovich, make their separate ways through history. Aksyonov impressively spreads out a panorama of suffering, but he overlays it with shameless melodrama, unconvincing uplift and grotesque humor. Readers who sling their hammock, move their samovar onto their veranda and settle down for an old-fashioned summer read may be distracted by a narrative farrago that includes a scene in which Dr. Gradov nearly wins the Order of Lenin...
...often been less inspiring -- in Hitler's Berlin in 1936, in the Munich beset by Palestinian terrorists in 1972, in the tit-for-tat cold war boycotts of 1980 and 1984, not to mention the myriad smaller moments when political bitterness or personal dishonor or random fate blemished the panorama of joyful striving. But whatever the misdeeds and mischances, the myth continually reasserts itself and endures. So it is always a surprise when the Olympics fall short of what the world imagines, a respite from the ordeals of daily headlines and household heartbreak...
Schepisi's camera is in love with New York's posh elegance. The shots of the Park, the view from the Rainbow Room and the panorama of the city's signature buildings are painfully gorgeous. Not only do they open up the script by providing a remarkable picture of the world in which the Kittredges and their friends live, but they provide a stark contrast to the handful of shots taken in the less ethereal parts of the city. When Paul moves in with two aspiring actors in their flat above a roller disco Downtown, and when he phones Ouisa...
...economic terms. Germany, though reunification has slowed it down somewhat, has joined Japan as one of the twin economic superpowers eclipsing American markets in both hemispheres. China has made it into the news for a variety of abuses of human rights, but they have just blended into the panorama of third-world oppression ever since the Tiananmen Square demonstrations were crushed...
...pagan myths to Christian ones, secular ideas to religious ones. Several of the disparate strands of the narrative seem intentionally left unresolved to pave the way for a sequel. Throughout the novel one is willing to forgive minor stylistic and narrative gaps, yet the eventual collapse of the historical panorama and Lasher's final confession seem little more than ridiculous. For devotes of the genre Rice offers all the elements which make the erotic/horror/fantasy tale popular--she just fails to link them together in a cohesive and believable...