Word: plot
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...novel reads like an exercise in bringing a feverish Proustian narrative to twenty-first century Manhattan. This novel, which blurs the boundaries between supermarket romance and literary fiction, mainly relies on Aciman’s ease at spinning together long, hypnotic sentences to fuel the heavily psychological and minimally plot-driven narrative. However, the same characteristics that give Aciman his writerly credentials—his finely tuned cultural references and the delicate register of his artistic understanding—are trivial ornaments that cannot disguise the stagnant quality of the central love story. Though the characters are undoubtedly clever...
...plot is unabashedly gimmicky, clashing with Aciman’s rhythmic and ornamented sentences. “Eight White Nights” opens with a (heavily repeated) hook—“I am Clara”—with which the main love interest introduces herself. It then breaks into an eight-part narrative, in which each part chronicles a different night that the unnamed narrator spends with Clara. He meets her while lurking behind the tree at a Christmas party and is instantly and fatally drawn towards her. Smart and mean, Clara scintillates with brilliance...
...Saint John of Las Vegas” is a classic case of great characters thrown into a second-rate plot. For amusing but plotless performances, see the film. But for a story that actually makes sense, stick with the poem...
...which with each rereading offers as much a sense of discovery as the first reading.” Mason’s reimagining takes such discovery to heart. He himself may be aware of the similarities between his and the Italian author’s work. Many of his plot twists recall Calvino’s own piece, “The Odysseys Within ‘The Odyssey,’” which opens by wondering, “How many Odysseys does ‘The Odyssey’ contain?” Mason?...
...plot of all three films leaves something to be desired on occasion. It is a typical noir story and sometimes the heavy-handed conspiracy elements and over-the-top violence become a tad obvious...