Word: poetic
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...construction of the novel has not helped matters. Ararat is built on the ancient practice of poetic improvisation. Its key character, Rozanov, a Soviet poet and a scoundrel, has mastered the art of making up a story or a poem when presented with a subject by someone in his audience. The theme of Rozanov's current improvisation is-improvisations. He proceeds to spin out tales about other poets who then go on to invent tales of their own. The effect resembles a garishly colored Russian matryoshka: wooden dolls within wooden dolls...
Language might yet have made Ancient Evenings a page turner, and the novel does offer brief, poetic passages. The shimmer and heat of the Nile, the blaze of Egyptian architecture when it was new and radiant with epochal ambition, the perfume and soft light of a harem garden: all enjoy moments of intense realization. But such moods are continually broken by ludicrous sentences: "In either case, my Pharaoh's mind was now concerned with buttocks." Or: "Now, with the redolence of my nose, I watched and admired the delicacy with which the Pharaoh ate." Mailer's historical posing...
...rightist bias who revels in his animal prowess with girls in singles bars. Harold is a do-good veteran of the '60s scene with its liberal pantomimes and drug dabbling. He sought God in a physics equation and found solace in a loving wife and child. His poetic affirmation of that love affectingly shields him from the play's ungentle night...
...north side of Tulsa: the socs occupy the south. But The Outsiders' sensibility is operatic enough to make the film into another West Side Story. From its first frames, when Stevie Wonder croons a pop ballad over images of suburban sunsets, Coppola sets the tone of poetic realism, Hollywood style. The greasers, with their sleek muscles and androgynous faces, display a leonine athleticism as they move through dusty lots or do a graceful, two-handed vault over a chain-link fence. Their camaraderie is familial, embracing, unselfconsciously homoerotic. Left to their better selves, they can easily go all moony...
True, the author has abused his poetic license; he is often perverse for perversity's sake, and he can be more outrageous than illuminating. Even so, he has produced a highly original volume-his 41st book in 27 years. Carry on, Burgess...