Word: presention
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...quartet itself was overly consistent in its color: passionate lines in the upper register nearly dominated the work. Clearly this was necessary in order to isolate the quartet from the orchestral strings. Yet the contrasting colors of pizzicato, double stops, trills, tremolos, sul ponticello or sul tasto bowings, if present, were far too subtle to stand...
...another, however, exploring the idiosyncrasies of each, it conveniently ignores, except in passing, those characters that have been previously discussed. The plot, therefore, is fractured, following each character for only the amount of time that he is directly satirically useful, and then abruptly leaving that character behind to present the activities of another...
Unfortunately, as the story progresses, the original characters and plot elements are slowly forgotten, making way for the introduction of new characters and situations tailored to present different social critiques...
...Sharpe had been able to include all of his characters throughout the story, or at the least to bring them all together in a significant manner at the end of the book, the convoluted plot could have been a highly effective means through which to present the chaos that the novel attempts to express in its final scenes. As the story stands, however, this feeling of lack of conclusion, when compounded over the entire work and never finally resolved, prevents the reader from absorbing the novel as a unified whole...
Direct and active character description, where it is present, is one of the strongest aspects of The Midden. The thoughts of the characters, both human and animal, during their interactions with one another bring out Sharpe's humor at its best...