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Bezig met laden... Oxford Blood (1985)door Antonia Fraser
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. is a privileged Oxford lord a bastard? who is trying to kill him? I must have had a lot more staying power thirty years ago. Sic transit Gloria mundi and all that sort of stuff… Just to clarify where I am going with this, I mean, of course, when it comes to reading. Nowadays, being so much older, and more than ten thousand days nearer to the grave, I tend to be very ruthless if a book fails to reach out and secure my attention. When I was younger, I seem to have persevered in the face of almost impenetrable lack of accessibility, or rampant triteness of plot. I had a conversation with a colleague recently, and we somehow found ourselves discussing the works of Antonia Fraser. I mentioned that I had enjoyed reading some of her Jemima Shore novels as well as her historical studies. While sorting out my overburdened bookshelves I had cause to remember that conversation as I came across my copy of this novel, and decided that it might offer some enjoyable nostalgic reading fare for a lazy weekend. Well, I chose poorly there. Triteness of plot and impenetrable lack of accessibility were out in force. I can’t believe that Antonia Fraser could demean herself by such woeful pap, or that I could ever have enjoyed such an immature and mindless assault on my literary sensitivities. Worst of all, I have been yielding valuable shelf-space to it for more than thirty years. Well that last failing was an error of judgement that was easily rectified, though I felt almost ashamed palming it off on one of the local charity shops. Barely average as a murder mystery. Antonia Fraser might be a decent biographer, but she's clearly better at analysing historical characters and events than creating her own. Oxford Blood takes place, rather obviously, at an Oxford college, where there's mystery about the true parentage of an aristocratic undergrad and people around him are being bumped off. All the characters in this are shallow (though not in the way she's intending) and two-dimensional, while the lead character, Jemima Shore, just isn't particularly believable. She's a bright, brittle TV reporter-cum-private investigator who has it all (... or does she? *ominous drum roll*) I guessed most of the plot except for whodunnit, and failed in that only because I didn't think it was psychologically plausible. There is also the added factor—which can't be laid at Antonia Fraser's feet—that this novel, written in 1985, needs to age for another twenty years or so. At that point, references to cassette players, answering machines and having to buy a copy of Debrett's Peerage in order to look someone up will feel cosily quaint, like an Agatha Christie novel, rather than jarringly dated. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Onderdeel van de reeks(en)Jemima Shore (5) Is opgenomen in
Much popular belief--and public policy--rests on the idea that those born into poverty have it in their power to escape. But the persistence of poverty and ever-growing economic inequality around the world have led many economists to seriously question the model of individual economic self-determination when it comes to the poor. In "Poverty Traps," Samuel Bowles, Steven Durlauf, Karla Hoff, and the book's other contributors argue that there are many conditions that may trap individuals, groups, and whole economies in intractable poverty. For the first time the editors have brought together the perspectives of economics, economic history, and sociology to assess what we know--and don't know--about such traps. Among the sources of the poverty of nations, the authors assign a primary role to social and political institutions, ranging from corruption to seemingly benign social customs such as kin systems. Many of the institutions that keep nations poor have deep roots in colonial history and persist long after their initial causes are gone. Neighborhood effects--influences such as networks, role models, and aspirations--can create hard-to-escape pockets of poverty even in rich countries. Similar individuals in dissimilar socioeconomic environments develop different preferences and beliefs that can transmit poverty or affluence from generation to generation. The book presents evidence of harmful neighborhood effects and discusses policies to overcome them, with attention to the uncertainty that exists in evaluating such policies. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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