Word: reader
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CARL SAGAN'S MISSION--to popularize contemporary science--is beyond reproach. Yet, like a hard-sell broker, his execution is chronically faulty. In this collection of 25 essays he spreads before the reader a whole gamut of the most tasty scientific ideas, concepts, and predictions, ranging from the prospect of extraterrestial life to the role of gestation in shaping world religion. But he skips frenetically from one to the next, milking only the most sensational aspects and indulging freely in irresponsible speculation. Our aggravation is heightened by his persistent editorial voice in the background, applauding the genius of this...
...wife's disappearance, the salesman is told that he must instead investigate himself. Without challenging orders, he concludes that this may simply be a more tactful and precise way of filing a complaint--and so he justifies his task. The narrator's tacit acceptance of what strikes the reader as illogical and absurd--investigating himself because of his wife's mysterious disappearance--accustoms the reader to the eerie, macabre atmosphere that persists throughout the entire novel...
...Dunes (1964), Abe's first novel and still his most popular in the West. The weakness of Secret Rendezvous lies not in its ideas, which were presented successfully in Abe's first book but in its format. In adopting the medium of fantasy, an author hopes to convince the reader not with the poignant accuracy of his images and characterizations, as in realistic fiction, but with the subtle, subliminal--but equally poignant--truth underlying the fabrication of plot and character. Kafka, Borges, Lem and Marquez succeed on this secondary level by treading a thin line between fantasy and realism...
...unless a lot is lost in translation, Abe's new novel is closer to outright farce: the crudeness and grotesqueness of its images entirely alienate the reader. Apart from the initial shock of meeting Abe's characters, there is little else besides some black humor; the reader is left stunned, unable to identify with the narrator or to place the story in a familiar or meaningful perspective. Secret Rendezvous leaves the reader provoked, but unmoved, and while he must respect the profundity of Abe's vision, the novel does not convince him to share...
...groupies who thrive on Vonnegut's simplistic reductions of life's problems into phrases like "So it goes," and those who go for his one-of-a-kind style and sarcastic commentary on life in the U.S.--will come away from Jailbird more than satisfied. And if the reader hails from within Harvard's ivy-covered walls, the sense of fulfillment will no doubt prove even more complete--Jailbird is not just another of the current rash of "life after Harvard" novels. Instead, it clearly portrays the vast dichotomy between the way the world views Harvard graduates...