Word: readers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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This much tragedy, in the hands of a less capable author, could easily become bathos. But Carver's characters cling to what they have so earnestly that no reader can dismiss them. They are up against the wall, but they haven't given up. They are still hoping for some transcendence, some moment of connection, even if the connection has to cross 20 years of failed marriage and distrust...
...reader giggles along with Myers-Carver, trying to imagine why anyone would want to fiddle with the stories that the Morgans tell when the Morgans themselves make such good stories. The laughter is a little mean, but it's forgiveable, because the Morgans use storytelling to elicit cheap pity and to load guilt on Myers and his wife for having been bad tenants. Myers' spite is a small comfort that he permits himself, a weapon against the know-nothings that the Morgans represent...
...troubled Chekhov as much as Carver. Chekhov's lover, Lydia Avilov, recorded in her memoirs that Chekhov's story, "About Love," was material stolen from their furtive affair. Ms. Avilov reproached Chekhov for his theft: "The colder the writer, the more sensitive and moving his story. Let the reader weep over it. That's what...
...after all, capable of describing himself as "intrinsically disheveled." Worse still, Donaldson seems only dimly aware of the discipline and artistry that went into Cheever's fiction. Two early stories, the biographer writes, "were deeply felt semiautobiographical tales populated by characters that the author (and hence the reader) clearly cared about." If "caring about" characters were truly a recipe for literary success, the world would be awash with masterpieces...
...used to be so glamorous. They always used to wear evening gowns." Defense lawyers sought to establish that Cipollone was an intelligent woman who made a decision to keep smoking despite plenty of signs that it was risky. As evidence, they introduced 115 articles from TIME, 47 articles from Reader's Digest and even lyrics from popular songs like the 1947 hit Smoke, Smoke, Smoke, which included the words "Puff, puff, and if you smoke yourself to death...