Word: sharpness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...sharp break in the book at that scene--it becomes suddenly less banal, more interesting--points up the book's major strength and weakness. From that point on, Robert's conflicts with his father are rooted in reality: someone, somehow, has to do something about Kate's pregnancy, and Robert's father, a prominent local surgeon, is a likely candidate for the task. But his father also believes firmly in a "sense of responsibility," and is extremely disappointed in his son Robert for displaying a serious failure to be responsible. One simply does not get one's friends pregnant...
...articulate about this," she adds. "1 know things intuitively more than I know them verbally, but my instincts are sharp. I do a one-liner that says it: "Have you ever seen a man walk up to four women sitting together in a bar and say, 'Hey, what are you doing here all alone?' " Still, she does not intrude her sexual politics into the show, and she makes fun of everyone, feminists included. "What," she asks, "would be your position on women's lib if you were a passenger on the Titanic...
...others. Elena Gragnalia slurs her authentic Italian accent maternally, yet as the landlady Isabel, she is reduced to desultory shuffling. Ponderous pauses mar Alan Fink's performance as Dr. Rappacini. He seems to have been set out to graze in his garden, talking to his vegetative creations with no sharp sinisterness. Even if he cares for his daughter, he's supposed to be a man who is imperious if not self-deifying. Fink improves at the end to bellow like the God of Genesis at his New Adam and Eve in their garden of evil...
...policemen's discontent surrounds their assertion that Gorski's reorganization unfairly increased the burden expected of them, and destroyed morale within the force by instituting sharp changes in their work routines without their consent. Naturally, some of this discontent stems from the natural resistance to change that characterizes any comfortable organization. Yet Gorski dismissed most of the union's grievances out of hand, without realizing that the officers had a right to complain about their conditions of employment. The University has done little to mend the feud. In almost three months of contract negotiations, Harvard has made no significant effort...
...willingness to deal with all sides of the reorganization problem. Moreover, it must now proceed to the current negotiations with a willingness to hear out the union's demands, no longer bound by institutional loyalty to the insensitive and inflexible former chief. Such a course would be a sharp change from Harvard's traditional dealings with the police union. Yet it may now be the only way the University will be able to keep the peace within its own peace-keeping force...