Word: reader
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...magazine, like those in the New Yorker, are aimed at "the seeker after excellence," and appeal to the reader's worst instincts--snobbery, exclusivity, and delight in sheer expense. It is doubtful that any but the pretentious rich would jump for joy the way a male model does in one ad--over nine pairs of new shoes in a full page spread. And there are the ubiquitous pictures of a Calvin Klein damsel in satiny "at-home" clothes or a Matisse-like line drawing publicizing Yves St. Laurent's stylish scraps...
...even though the famous names are as familiar to the reader as grocery lists, the pieces fail to capture the spark that brought fame to the subject. They are meandering and not especially compelling...
...conducts two interviews and interjects his wit and wisdom into a third. His questions give the same kind of impression as Guiness's--that the interviewer is thinking "Isn't it exciting talking to these Frightfully Important People!" And Warhol is even more irritating. In the Duvall interview, the reader hears from Warhol that he "was supposed to go to the pimple doctor this morning" but "never went...
...Colacello's "Out" column makes the reader froth at the mouth at its name-dropping and wolverine voraciousness for The Stories about The Only People Worth Writing About. Even if one had been raised to venerate age and all that jazz it would be hard to feel any rush of attraction to this man who eyes the camera with all the vivacity of a flounder. This issue he describes "How I spent my Summer Vacation." In Harvard Expository Writing classes even freshmen flee from this uninspiring topic, but Colacello is raring...
Kepesh's ultimate fate is never in doubt - or at least will not be to readers familiar with Roth's work. In The Breast (1972), David Kepesh suffers a Kafkaesque transformation from man to mammary. Kepesh of course cannot know that such a thing will happen to him (since this novel is narrated before events in The Breast begin). But the reader's knowledge of the surrealistic enchantment that awaits Kepesh lends a poignancy to his struggles. Try as he may to be good, flesh will subsume him at last. At the end of his narrative, Kepesh...