Most memorably, and by way of an epilogue perhaps signaling reincarnation for the woman at the center of "Bell, " Ms. Seyama has the climactic theatrical statement.

WSJ: Giselle at the D?j?ji Temple | Yasuko Yokoshi | Bell | New York Live Arts | By Robert Greskovic

To bring the book up to date, there is an epilogue on Long-Term Capital Management, a hedge fund peopled by Wall Street wizards and Nobel prize-winning economists, which collapsed ignominiously last year.

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Though an epilogue examines tactical what-ifs, no effort is made to say what it all meant, and the whole story reads rather like an inside view of a tight World Series baseball championship.

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The 176-page volume, which comprises a brief foreword, four chapters and an epilogue, traces Jesus' life up to the age of 12, when, according to the Gospels, he was presented by his parents in the Temple in Jerusalem, the Vatican said.

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Of course, because we're a hopeless species, there's also been extravagant speculation that when James's run in Miami is done, his road may wind its way back to Cleveland for an emotional epilogue.

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By the time of the epilogue, when the 19th-century Alice has become a 21st-century young woman with an iPhone, the ballet's length has begun to weigh it down, but this dramatic conceit lifts the narrative.

WSJ: Stolen by Design | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | National Ballet of Canada | By Robert Greskovic