Word: sagas
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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True to the title, Patrick takes the easy way out. It isn't very admirable. McCauley builds the climax with the ingenuity of an experienced comic novelist. Curling through the book has been the saga of Patrick's efforts to get a Harvard professor and his secret mistress a scarce reservation in Bermuda. After the kind of sure but wayward plotting that marks the work of David Lodge, Britain's master of academic foolery, it turns out that Patrick gets to enjoy the booking and the island's velvet sands -- with Arthur a thousand miles north...
...BOTTOM LINE: The unpretty saga of an American family is brilliantly delivered...
Katz conceived his book as a "saga of the sort usually found in novels," and that is what he delivers brilliantly. In a morbidly fascinating chapter for each year from 1945 to 1990, the Gordon daughters and son wander into every haunted house they catch a glimpse...
This is a good-news story. There aren't very many of them in politics these days, but the saga of Mary Robinson is the real thing. Irish public life is the stuff of tragedy or bad jokes. The country is haunted by the division between north and south, by the grim persistence of terrorism, by divisive personal issues such as birth control and abortion, and by recurrent scandals. Charles Haughey, the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) for nine of the past 13 years, was thrown out of office in January when one scandal too many surfaced...
Like Truman, McCullough has little use for academic theorizing; instead his marvelous feel for history is based on an appreciation of colorful tales and an insight into personalities. In this compelling saga of America's greatest common-man President, McCullough adds luster to an old-fashioned historical approach that is regaining respect: the sweeping narrative, filled with telling details and an appreciation of the role individuals play in shaping the world...