Word: reader
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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SOME of the letters give tantalizing glimpses into a personality who was as controversial in his lifetime as he still is today, but they are too frequently cut off before the reader's appetite is satisfied. Flaubert seems to have sought the mot juste, the perfect word, as much in his personal writing as in his novels, and the passages which include letters he wrote are beautiful. It would be better to read a collection of his letters than to read Lottman's biography...
Unfortunately, the incredible detail of the biography overwhelms the reader. Under the guise of a framework, it consistently intrudes on the story and prevents the reader from becoming truly engaged in what was probably a fascinating life...
...thriller as a complicated parable that contains pages and pages of erudite details about such medieval phenomena as the Knights Templar, the Cathars and the Order of Assassins. And Eco steadfastly refuses to explain what his mysterious novel is all about. "This was a book conceived to irritate the reader," he says in his drafty university office, lighting up another of the 60 cigarettes he puffs every day. "I knew it would provoke ambiguous, nonhomogeneous responses because it was a book conceived to point up some contradictions...
Billy's mother is personally unreliable, but there is method in her madness. As her son rises to success (or falls, depending on the reader's moral outlook), she follows her own unpredictable route that eventually meets Billy...
...characters in Billy Bathgate follow rules tailored to their personalities, and through Billy, the reader sees these individual codes...