Never have cheekbones been so sharp a metaphor for granite tenacity.Thatcher loyalists are outraged that their heroine should be portrayed as decrepit, on the brink of dementia.
What his jokes have in common with his conversation is his gift for sharp, vivid metaphors: it's there when he's on stage, it's there when he's casually describing overly salty food, and it's there in the profile when he's likening himself to cricket-cage artisans or surfers or scientists at Cal Tech.
"After the Reconciliation" (of course, the relatively happy ending is built into the title) is a modernist melodrama of emotional severity and archly playful humor in which decades' worth of hard-lived bonds are unpacked in dramatic gestures, sharp dialogue, and theatrical metaphors.
At times the dryness draws attention to Pop's shortcomings: his voice sounds almost like a caricature of itself now, and his lyrics aren't always the sharpest: Vulture is a metaphor about corporate men ("His evil breath / Smells just like death / He takes no chances / He knows the dances") that would make a 14-year-old proud.
Prose has to sign itself, establish its showy authority in silvery cutlass swipes through the air: clever insights, brilliant metaphors, unusual words, sharp observation, perpetually buoyant dialogue.
She is aided by a prose style which, though occasionally given to melodrama or tangled metaphors, is more often sharp and evocative.
"Acute is sharp, and then eroded is an earth metaphor," she said.
He plays the irascible liberal with a sharp tongue and a penchant for bizarre Cajun metaphors.
With their sharp edges and modern lines, they're a graphic metaphor for this season's hottest prints.
The play is of course the Thornton Wilder classic, a prospect that may make you want to sink through your seat before you see the sharp kids, joy in their eyes, assessing the easy metaphor in Wilder's work.
