Jennifer’s Reviews > Naming Thy Name: Cross Talk in Shakespeare's Sonnets > Status Update

I suppose I’m meant to come to appreciate their shared love and understanding, yet Constable’s charm and gentleness are effacing and manufactured. A magnetism that works outwardly while remaining hollow at the center: curated, aestheticized, selectively deployed—power that depends on distance and misrecognition. Charm that travels well and looks impressive “to the greater world.” Convincing at a distance, but collapsing when truth matters. An act. A performance.

I dare not hope he is redeemed. I assume that to be the point, given the book appears to be an exploration of their devotion to one another.

Excuse me while I sip my cynic’s tea.