Word: valores
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Caius Marcius (Alan Howard) has won the added name of Coriolanus by defeating the Volscians at Corioli. He is a Roman of boundless valor and steely pride. The patricians put him up for consul of Rome and the plebeians grudgingly accede, though Coriolanus refuses to do any political truckling to secure their favor. Furious at his open contempt, the plebs rescind their approval and have him banished from the city...
...STRANGE little book, greatly flawed but tantalizingly good-groups of brilliant paragraphs sandwiched around prose that runs annoyingly flat. Tom McGuane jumped the stakes on himself; the epigram that begins the book is "The best epitaph a man can gain is to have accomplished daring deeds of valor against the enmity of fiends during his lifetime." Worthy sentiments, but that hardly makes the comic Nylon Pindar a fiend. More a shitsucker, in Chet's phrase, more Runyonesque. The Caribbean syndicalist novel is not an art form of the future; after all, Hero's engine never really ran anything; it just...
Wouk is still at his best when his feet are firmly astride a swaying deck: the battles at sea provide the novel's swiftest and most knowing passages. Yet for all the exhilaration his warriors display in combat, Wouk knows the bitter price of valor. Here and there he lectures too self-consciously. But even as a preacher the author can be effective. Through the voice of Pug, Wouk writes that the world's destiny rests on a pathetically simple hope: "Most people, even the most fanatical and boneheaded Marxists, even the craziest nationalists and revolution aries, love...
...loses control here. He works so hard at being winsome that he inadvertently parodies Richard Dreyfuss's performance in The Goodbye Girl. Maybe Bridges is overacting to compensate for his co-star's nonacting, but, in this case, discretion clearly would have been the better part of valor...
...also exhilarated by the drama of the situation: the no-good revolutionary dregs of society against the epitome of authority and respect for the existing order. Just like the old days. Here was a chance for them to show off their neat equipment, their military precision, and even their valor. It would be fun, no one would be seriously hurt, and the police would win with ease, reminding everyone who is boss in town...