Object Lessons.Object Lessons, by Anna Quindlen Anna Quindlen (b. July 8, 1952) is an American author, journalist and opinion columnist whose New York Times column, Public and Private, won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992. (Ivy Books, 323 pp., paper, $5.99) ANNA Quindlen has just won a Pulitzer for her twice-weekly "Public and Private" column, which appears on the op-ed page of the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times. That the column is distinguished mainly by a shrill shrill adj. shrill·er, shrill·est 1. High-pitched and piercing in tone or sound: the shrill wail of a siren. 2. , self-righteous tone and specious argument Noun 1. specious argument - an argument that appears good at first view but is really fallacious argument, statement - a fact or assertion offered as evidence that something is true; "it was a strong argument that his hypothesis was true" seems not to have mattered; I like to think the Pulitzer Committee was merely rewarding the Times for finally giving a spot to someone under forty. Certainly Miss Quindlen is a genuine voice of her generation and class, in her virtues as well as her vices. The virtues are on full display in her endearing en·dear·ing adj. Inspiring affection or warm sympathy: the endearing charm of a little child. en·dear first novel, Object Lessons, now out in paperback. It is the story of one summer in the life of Maggie Scanlon, the summer when everything changed: dawning adolescence, romance, and family instability. The baby-boomers' defining prejudices-- that theirs is the first generation to experience true idealism and to know the infuriating limits (as well as joys) that derive from each man's particular heritage-are there. But instead of indulging in her familiar whiny sermonizing Miss Quindlen here evokes those feelings by her depictions of characters and events. Even the somewhat caricatured family members--the wise rebel "aunt," the klepto-entrepreneurial, Kennedy-hating Irish grandfather-are nuanced, simultaneously cherished and resented by the author and her characters. Miss Quindlen's narrative is shaped by human nature, with the epigram epigram, a short, polished, pithy saying, usually in verse, often with a satiric or paradoxical twist at the end. The term was originally applied by the Greeks to the inscriptions on stones. one character quotes "Life is a comedy for those who think, a tragedy for those who feel"---giving a fair summary of her take on life. No doubt her children will grow up to be Republicans. |
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