Word: schwamm
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...novel was always approaching the finish line. In real life Brodkey tiptoed around his writer's block, became the father of a daughter, then went through a divorce from the woman he had met as a Harvard undergraduate. After a long bachelorhood he was introduced to novelist Ellen Schwamm. Two weeks later, she left her husband of 23 years and moved into Brodkey's cluttered Manhattan apartment. They were married in 1980. He supported himself by teaching part time at Cornell, developing scripts at NBC and artfully freeloading. He advertised himself as "an incredibly good dinner guest...
...very risky for him (Liem) to bring the subject up in front of the class, but it was terrific that someone responded," said Lee Schwamm...
...ounce of spunk--an unfortunate deviation from the Gothic tradition. Asking for a joint bank account becomes a crisis of independence. After being robbed of her wedding ring and wristwatch, she wonders whether the event was unreal or surreal. Our sympathy for Nora is further lessened by Schwamm's emphasis on Nora's contradictory and oppressive wealth. It is hard to feel for the frenzy of the poor little rich girl when it is described in terms of "her pulse...beating against the hammered gold cuff on her wrist...
...disciple, but one senses that she as narrator has still not understood the ideal towards which the novel pushes, the grasping of Lautner's particular ideology. Her struggle is therefore simply a document, neither cast into perspective nor interpreted incisively. This results partly from the limitations of Schwamm's technique: the author frequently displays such annoying faults as complacently explicating the dialogue she has just penned. Nora's attitude towards her father, for example, is summarized: "She loved him and regarded him as wise-after-all. Sometimes she was ashamed of him, but mostly she loved...
...contrast to the flatness of Schwamm's description, her dialogue is extraordinarily real. The novel does offer an unparalleled portrayal of the life of New York's leisurely class in the '80s; Schwamm's setting includes Max Ernst dresses, original Bauhaus furniture and Balducci's. The snubs and gossip at the parties and charity auctions which so bore Nora furnish some of the most absorbing information we receive, and here the narrative commentary finally achieves the appropriate level of irony...