NO SHY VIOLETS HERE: Now that the tulip promenade is over, violets are strutting their stuff at the Montrose African Violet Society's annual flower show and sale today and Sunday at Descanso Gardens.

Now imagine a solitary author, laboring for months over a novel, a story or a poem, cultivating it like a gardener who slaves over a prizewinning African violet.

Each of us who saw this movie found that it is one thing to experience this American tragedy vicariously through our intellects and quite another to witness it as close to first-hand as possible through its graphic depiction on screen through the narrative voice of an "authentic African;" Cinque's authenticity is signified during a scene where he and Adams share a moment when the latter recognizes the African violet in Adams's flower garden.