Word: tritely
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...enough of whiny, look-at-me-and-what-I've-been-through books. At this point they've become trite and just about unbearable. Which is why Haruki Murakami's South of the Border, West of the Sun is hard to get into--the book commences with what seems to be an attitude of complaint about the unfair hardships of adolescence. The main character, Hajime, is a young man growing up in a "small, quiet town" in Japan. He lives a normal life in a neighborhood where all the houses match and everyone...
South of the Border, West of the Sun can only gain a lukewarm reception from readers who, for the most part, can't identify with anything in the novel (besides, perhaps, the rather trite description of the painful process of adolescence), and who don't seem to have anything to gain by reading it. We are asked to think about happiness and its definition--that seems to be about it. And so we're left with a question, which in many cases is a suitable ending to a good book. Unfortunately in this case, the question...
...only watch helplessly as Xiu Xiu falls victim to a waning revolution and its callous participants. Director Joan Chen proves her stuff in depicting the transformation of a young girl into a desperate manipulator trying to sleep her way out of Tibet. This is not a trite teen angst movie from Hollywood, but an examination of walking the fine line of womanhood to survive. We do not feel pity, but rather, we experience a slice of the disillusionment felt by the youth of the Cultural Revolution (such as Joan Chen herself...
...only watch helplessly as Xiu Xiu falls victim to a waning revolution and its callous participants. Director Joan Chen proves her stuff in depicting the transformation of a young girl into a desperate manipulator trying to sleep her way out of Tibet. This is not a trite teen angst movie from Hollywood, but an examination of walking the fine line of womanhood to survive. We do not feel pity, but rather, we experience a slice of the disillusionment felt by the youth of the Cultural Revolution (such as Joan Chen herself...
Unfortunately, Englander has a tendency to overstate the sufferings of the Jewish people. Though he writes stories which are genuinely and interestingly sad, the author often insists on adding a manipulative twist, making the occasional phrase sound whiny and trite. While his stories are always engaging, holding attention up to the last moment, Englander's endings are often abrupt and unsatisfying...