Word: venusized
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...READ The Transit of Venus is to leave the crazed nihilistic rush of the modern street and to venture into the lucid stillness of an old place, maybe an art museum, of finer craftsmanship and the echos of time. This novel hauntingly portrays contemporary life, always going past it, past the preoccupations and manias of the moment, to a longer, stiller perspective...
...story of such world-ranging pathos as Transit of Venus might be expected to lapse into the trite romantic-melodrama that fills airport book racks. But Hazzard errs infrequently. She makes sentimental slips in directing the plot; but they remain only minor errors, like those of other great writers, short detours from her delicate discipline...
...intriguing way, even these flaws contribute to making this an "important" book. The Transit of Venus upholds the continuum of "great literature." While it is brilliantly modern and engrossing for our age, it appeals to the problems of life, to our steadier thoughts, and to the timeless mysticism of a story well told. Far more than a museum piece, it retains a seriousness and dignity beyond most contemporary fiction...
...refers to the goddess of salt water in the Brazilian macumba cult, whose votaries send out little silver-painted boats laden with flowers, perfumed soap and mirrors as offerings (if they sink, lemanjá has accepted the prayer). Pindell has given her own offering to this tropical Venus a mild air of reverence...
...lived, she radiates a great and unforgettable purity of spirit. The final scene in this segment is a visual stunner. The rising wind whips the garment about Clytemnestra's knees. Alone, burnt-eyed, she raises an arm as she watches the Greek fleet under full sail, a Botticelli Venus transformed into the mater dolorosa...