Word: simonizes
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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PUBLISHER: SIMON & SCHUSTER; 464 PAGES...
CHUNKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT WERE written by -- a woman! So went the sales- boosting claim of Harold Bloom in 1990's The Book of J. Bloom booms again in the preposterous, opinionated, thoroughly entertaining THE AMERICAN RELIGION (Simon & Schuster; $22). The eminent Yale critic, who sees religion as "spilled poetry," turns tastemaker on U.S.-made faiths, especially Southern Baptism, where he stumbles badly, and Mormonism, which he lauds for odd originality. Pentecostalism? "Daring." New Age? Can't read the stuff. A portentous subtitle transmits Bloom's wish: "The Emergence of the Post- Christian Nation." Oh, yes. Bloom thinks America...
...need not bother. Such a deal -- but hark! Novelist Haughton Murphy does all this and is funny in the bargain. His hero is an elderly, retired lawyer named Reuben Frost, who keeps getting into other people's trouble. In this seventh outing in the series, A VERY VENETIAN MURDER (Simon & Schuster; $19), Frost and his wife Cynthia are taking their ease in Venice when someone murders an American dress designer. The soft-boiled detective is 77, and when danger threatens, he takes a nap. Or nibbles a nine-star lunch with Cynthia. But in the end he nails the villain...
Such growing influence may be considered good or bad, but either way it is probably unavoidable. "Indisputably, Germany is going to occupy a totally dominant position in the years to come," says Simon Petermann, professor of international relations at Brussels Free University. "That's a position that, in many respects, the Germans have long held. The difference now is that the old formula casting Germany as an economic giant and a political dwarf no longer holds true...
James is at their best in their dance tunes, but they display almost equal proficiency in some other styles. "Next Lover," their soft, lyrical love song, is reminiscent of Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair." Its simple, pretty lyrics, combined with the gentle weaving of guitars in the background, create a soothing, lullaby effect...