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Article: The Knave of Boston and Other Ambiguous Massachusetts Characters.
- Article from:
- The Washington Monthly
- Article date:
- January 1, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1988 Washington Monthly Company. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Knave of Boston and Other Ambiguous Massachusetts Characters.
Francis Russell. Quinlan Press. $17.95. Years ago an interviewer induced momentary speech-lessness (not my usual affliction) by suggesting that Boston itself is a character in my books, an insight so commanding that of course I stole it at once, using it to great effect on subsequent book tours (without, of course, crediting the source--this was before we were all joebidened into prim footnoting of others' better lines).
The passage of time tends to add nuance to such pilferings; the flaw in the seer's question was its neglect of the manifest fact that Boston, a state of mind that exists ...