Word: splendidments
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...literary bestiary, Flaubert's Parrot is actually a centaur--a splendid hybrid with the scholarly countenance of literary criticism and the powerful headquarters of a good novel. Such crossbreeding of genres is not mythical or even uncommon in 20th century literature--take Nabokov's career, for example, which includes a novel in the guise of an annotated poem. Pale Fire, and a literary biography that's also a comic masterpiece. Nikolai Gogol. What makes Julian Barnes's achievement so remarkable, however, is the sheer lack of artifice and pyrotechnics involved...
...romanticizing the sport, his striving to provide a sense of the special impact it has upon players and New England communities is not appreciated because Roger Angell has already done it all before, and done it much better besides. True, the New Yorker writer-whose essays do make splendid books--has the advance of observing all twenty six teams, but ever, Angell's portrayal of the Red Sox his discussions of New England's affection for its team has the touch of an artist. Gammons is correct in noting that the Sox are "sports' first and foremost regional franchise...
...Geneva is still a splendid place in which to discuss the world's ills. The best lakeside restaurants, like La Perle du Lac or the Lion d'Or, serve a magret de canard with a fine bottle from neighboring Burgundy for about $40. Geneva also has good Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Indian restaurants, not to mention modest brasseries that offer a delicious newly caught perch for about $10. Any American who wants to take advantage of the strong dollar (now worth 2.8 Swiss francs, up from 1.7 five years ago) will find the Rue du Rhone lined with windows displaying...
There are splendid things in the Met's show: nobody could say that rooms holding Caravaggio's Uffizi Bacchus or the London Supper at Emmaus or the Thyssen Saint Catherine are underoxygenated. Moreover, the Met has done some good to scholarship by setting Caravaggio against what was painted in Italy, and especially in Rome, when he was alive. Other exhibitions have focused on how the artist influenced 17th century painting all over Europe. This one shows the painting that influenced him when he was growing up--and the visual pedantry he had to contend with. Except for Lotto, Tintoretto...
...records, neither Lauper's nor Madonna's efforts come within a mile of Tina Turner's splendid album of racked soul, Private Dancer, or get into the depth and irony explored by Linda Thompson on the just released One Clear Moment. But, as pop icons, Lauper and Madonna are exerting more power right now than any other women on the scene. With her squashed face looking as if it is pressed perpetually behind glass, Lauper is every lost girl's projection of success: a little nutty, a lot mocking and splendidly vindicated, all in her own terms. Madonna...