Word: reader
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...father’s death, but partly because there are so many characters—brothers, sisters, cousins, in-laws—none of these imagined glimpses into their lives go anywhere or feel very satisfying. Things take a turn for the better—and remind the reader that other people’s families can actually be interesting—about a third of the way in, beginning with “The Wilds of Morris Township,” a story that reproduces an extensive passage from the recollections of a mid-nineteenth-century relative known...
Granted, Harry is incompetently pursuing girls by the sixth book—most sixteen year-old boys are—but he is not intended in any way to arouse the reader. Harry’s sexuality is just as much as part of the growing process, and just as much a source of reader empathy, as is his cracking voice and teen angst...
...undeniable that there’s something alluring about a book where the message is clear and easy; the danger is when it ceases to be a guilty pleasure and becomes the norm.Literature has always been, in one sense, about self-medication and escapism. It can force the reader to empathize with other people and experiences, even if they are fictional characters and plots. But when self-help and literature merge into one, both complexity and empathy are lost. Readers turn inwards, accept what they are told is wrong with them, and accept the automatic solution. But if you have...
...most difficult aspects of human existence?Somewhere between the endless chapters on the life of bees and the endless obsession with the scatological and the priapic is one of the most sinister and compelling men of the twentieth century. But he remains an enigma, both to the reader and to the author exploring him—an author who seems more interested in the allegorical constructs he creates to describe human behavior than the behavior they’re meant to illuminate.Unable to penetrate Hitler’s depths, Mailer pulls back, focusing instead on his devil-narrator...
...Bloomsbury” a colorful yet historically accurate piece of literary criticism, and her ostensible desire to liberate her subjects from the stuffy realm of academia and to recapture the vibrant intellectual community they created is certainly laudable. As Cheever assures us in a personal note to the reader, her intentions are “to honor the characters, their lives, and their intimate connections with each other.” That’s great. Unfortunately, by treating her subjects more like personalities in a melodramatic soap opera than distinguished writers, she does just the opposite. Cheever apparently wanted...