Word: vina
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...only reason the Cardinals came even remotely close to a postseason berth. St. Louis would be rivaling the Texas Rangers if not for Pujols, considering the injury-plagued seasons of J.D. Drew and Fernando Vina, the subpar year by Jim Edmonds and a pitching staff that became mediocre overnight...
...Defense. Employing the best middle-of-the-field defense in baseball, the Cardinals have reason to be confident because shortstop Edgar Renteria, second baseman Fernando Vina and center fielder Jim Edmonds will form a black hole up the middle. Grounders, line drives and pop-ups will go there...
...empty, with a few discotheques and famous faces but lacking energy and life. The essence of America seems to slip through Rushdie's fingers, and a rich history of pop culture is reduced to a handful of amusing cameos. Narrator Rai becomes myopic in this foreign environment, keeping Vina and Ormus at a distance from the reader and failing to portray them as more than celebrated anomalies...
Rushdie's prose ranges from lush to breathlessly over-the-top to simply ridiculous; in an attempt to bring a more rock-and-roll feel to the work, he introduces slang, throwaway puns and silly lyrics that hinder his otherwise elegant style. He describes Vina as "Professor Vina and Crystal Vina, Holy Vina and profane Vina, Junkie Vina and Veggie Vina, Women's Vina and Vina the Sex Machine, Barren-Childless Tragic Vina and Traumatized-childhood-Tragedy Vina." Um, what was that again...
Ormus' musical elegy for Vina reaches a poetic level missing in the rest of his fabricated song lyrics. He sings, "and now I can't be sure of anything, black is white and cold is heat; for what I worshiped stole my love away, it was the ground beneath her feet." The words are expressive but minimal and emotional, a style Rushdie might have stuck to when writing other parts of the book. The nature of celebrity is a subject Rushdie tackles with aplomb, yielding a few entertaining bits of satire. His celebrities are drugged up, swaggering, stylized and often...