Word: plot
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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First novels seldom attract financial interest from Hollywood, but when they do, as in the case of Peter Benchley's Jaws or Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent, the selling points tend to be strong characters and a plot long on tension and surprises. That's a fair description of Christina Schwarz's Drowning Ruth (Doubleday; 338 pages; $23.95), which probably explains why, even before its publication, Miramax bought the screen rights for director Wes Craven. Readers should not wait for the film version, though, because this unusually deft and assured first novel conveys a good deal more than thrills...
...greatest strength of Drowning Ruth is not its tension-building plot but rather its careful portrait of people who must get on with the daily business of living no matter how mystified they are by unanswered questions. Carl realizes that he has a farm to run and a daughter to raise. When Amanda, who has stayed on to become Ruth's surrogate mother, suffers a nervous breakdown and goes to a sanitarium for a year, he nearly loses control of his increasingly wild child. Only when Amanda returns does Ruth settle down and some semblance of normal family life begin...
...must interrupt myself now, because the plot thickens. I just hung up with the manager of the bar who's calling me back in 10 minutes with the real name and identity of the perp with whom we were talking (I should've been a private investigator). So I will let you know the outcome...
...shot reeked of GoodWill Hunting, the plot of Harvard Man is quite the opposite...
...Palestinians simply don't understand the Israelis. They see them either as all-powerful and able to do anything, or otherwise as easily defeated. There's no objective, realistic approach to Israel. For example, when Barak has problems with parties leaving his coalition, they see it either as a plot or as a sign that Barak counts for nothing. They don't understand the political culture of Israel, of a democracy. Of course they're going to disagree with Israel's positions on Jerusalem, for example, but they haven't made it their business to try and understand why Barak...