Word: schlemihl
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...potential, but Alice Van Buren's "Twelve O'clock" (another first chapter) does more. It begins the memoirs of a self-pitying, broken-down, and impotent young Bohemian painter who's retreated so far from the world that he has absolutely no one to talk to-an unlikeable schlemihl, except for his occasional self-denigrating humor. The problem Van Buren gives him is a variation on a dusty science fiction device-he finds he can stop time at will for everyone in the world but himself. As far as the chapter goes, the time-fix is more a pivot...