Word: uncommonly
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Like the author's previous The Russian Years, this concluding volume benefits mightily from the cooperation of Nabokov's widow and son. But their assistance should not overshadow biographer Boyd's ability to penetrate the mysteries of the great novelist's art and life with uncommon insight and elegance. On his arrival in America, writes Boyd, Nabokov "would have to abandon entirely ((his)) hard-earned fame and to win respect over again from scratch, at midcareer, in a new language, at a time when to be a Russian emigre seemed deeply suspect to much of the American literary intelligentsia...
Like the author's previous The Russian Years, this concluding volume benefits mightily from the cooperation of Nabokov's widow and son. But their assistance should not overshadow biographer Boyd's ability to penetrate the mysteries of , the great novelist's art and life with uncommon insight and elegance. On his arrival in America, writes Boyd, Nabokov "would have to abandon entirely ((his)) hard-earned fame and to win respect over again from scratch, at midcareer, in a new language, at a time when to be a Russian emigre seemed deeply suspect to much of the American literary intelligentsia...
...time Turner brought his wife over to a table to introduce her to a group and "somebody said, 'You sure have a beautiful woman there.' And Ted said, 'Yup, and if she doesn't stay beautiful, the next one will be even better.' That kind of remark was not uncommon...
Saying different things to different audiences is not exactly uncommon in politics. And ever since Dwight Eisenhower complained that his golf game suffered because someone was "always yelling Nasser at the top of my backswing," every politician with national ambitions has been attuned to how his Middle East views play on the U.S. political scene. Today's Democratic contenders are no exception. Even those who are toying with isolationism make an exception for Israel. They know that American Jews are a bountiful source of campaign contributions and that they vote in numbers far exceeding their percentage of the population...
...then people were stripping glue off walls for protein. Tons of rotting sheep guts were boiled down into a rancid jelly and handed out as the meat ration. It was not uncommon to see people collapse from hunger while walking home through the snow, dying on the street. Some would remain covered beneath the snow until the spring. A factory chief remembers a worker asking him a final favor. "I know that today or tomorrow I will die," he said. "My family are in a very poor way -- very weak . . . Will you be a friend and have a coffin made...