Word: valerian
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...archbishop simply threw in the towel. Since 1975, Valerian Trifa, head of the 35,000-member Rumanian Orthodox Episcopate of America, has faced Justice Department charges that during World War II he led an anti-Semitic group in Rumania and incited riots that led to the deaths of hundreds of Christians and Jews. In 1980, the archbishop gave up his U.S. citizenship, acquired in 1957, rather than face trial on the allegations. Last week in Detroit, in the midst of a deportation trial that was to air the charges, the prelate abruptly agreed to leave the U.S. Justice dropped charges...
...these houses belongs to Valerian Street, a retired millionaire candy manufacturer who does very little but cat voraciously, drink wine, and watch his plants while he listens to classical music. He has an eerie, distant relationship with his younger, beautiful wife Margaret, the "Principal Beauty of Maine" who made something "kneel down in his heart" when he first looked at her and who finds island life a tragedy of boredom. The Streets have been served for years by an elderly Black couple. Sydney and Ondine, who keep the house in working order and help to maintain the social order. They...
Jadine is a modern, beautiful young woman whose atypical life is a product of Valerian's charity. She has been educated at the Sorbonne and became a socialite in Paris, top model with her "mink eyes" on the cover of Elle. She bridges the gap between the white employers and her aunt and uncle, but the only mystical images which this gap produces are stereotypes. The other native women who periodically work for the Streets watch Jadine closely. They call her "fast-ass": she calls them all Mary because "all the baptized black women on the island had Mary among...
...discovery of an untamed, uneducated filthy young man named Son who has been hiding in the Street's house for days. At first he is an ugly rastaman, a "nigger in the woodpile" whose lack of breeding and cleanliness offend her and the rest of the family. All except Valerian, who invites him to stay-and with one gesture opens the door to legends and tales that will haunt the rest of the plot...
...takes 200 pages to find out, though not before Morrison forcefully diverts attention from her love story to some serious conflicts in the Street house. Valerian and Margaret do not share a bedroom. He spends most of his time in a greenhouse tending feeble plants that might flourish if left outside in the trade breezes. Ghostly pale, Margaret lies in the shade and believes that her son Michael will finally visit her. In the kitchen, Ondine, Sydney's wife, cooks Main Line specialties and fumes about the unreasonable demands of her boss's wife. Ondine also harbors...