This intriguing novel .... is a taut, lyrical, tour de force.

sionnach Book Review Bingo : More Book Review Cliche Fun Than You Can Shake a Riveting Unputdownable Stick At Jun 20, 2011

sionnach Not that I'm a fan of Strunk and White, the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of eccentric prescriptivism, but their thoughts on reviewerspeak are worth quoting:

The world of criticism has a modest pouch of special words (luminous, taut), whose only virtue is that they are exceptionally nimble and can escape from the garden of meaning over the wall. Of these critical words, Wolcott Gibbs once wrote: '...they are detached from the language and inflated like little balloons.' The young writer should learn to spot them -- words that at first glance seem freighted with delicious meaning but that soon burst in air, leaving nothing but a memory of bright sound.


Jun 20, 2011

chained_bear That is a frighteningly perfect addition to this numinous (or was that luminous?) list.

Have you considered sending Mr. Forshaw a haunting link to this spare, compelling page of brio? Jul 3, 2009

sionnach We review the review:

In three taut, elegant paragraphs, Forshaw leaves the reader breathless, stunned by the vacuous pomposity of his unusually moribund parade of bloviated buzzwords. Never one to eschew the sesquipedalian latinate impenetrability, Forshaw deploys them throughout his review with laserlike precision and beautifully textured transparency. Meaningless adjectives are scattered throughout the review to delight the reader, much like the partially gnawed limbs of the Donner Party. This review will make you pee your pants, it's such a fracking fully realised tour de force. Jul 3, 2009

sionnach The review:

Incandescent prose. Beautifully textured characterisation. Transparent narratives. The adjectives to describe the writing of John Banville are all affirmative, and The Sea is a ringing affirmation of all his best qualities. His publishers are claiming that this novel by the Booker-shortlisted author is his finest yet, and while that claim may have an element of hyperbole, there is no denying that this perfectly balanced book is among the writer's most accomplished work.

Max Morden has reached a crossroads in his life, and is trying hard to deal with several disturbing things. A recent loss is still taking its toll on him, and a trauma in his past is similarly proving hard to deal with. He decides that he will return to a town on the coast at which he spent a memorable holiday when a boy. His memory of that time devolves on the charismatic Grace family, particularly the seductive twins Myles and Chloe. In a very short time, Max found himself drawn into a strange relationship with them, and pursuant events left their mark on him for the rest of his life. But will he be able to exorcise those memories of the past?

The fashion in which John Banville draws the reader into this hypnotic and disturbing world is non pareil, and the very complex relationships between his brilliantly delineated cast of characters are orchestrated with a master's skill. As in such books as Shroud and The Book of Evidence, the author eschews the obvious at all times, and the narrative is delivered with subtlety and understatement. The genuine moments of drama, when they do occur, are commensurately more powerful. --Barry Forshaw Jul 3, 2009

sionnach In this taut, compelling, magisterial work, we see an insightful and gripping author at the top of his game, weaving a rich, lustrous, tapestry that transcends the genre. Elegant and scrupulous, intermittently poignant and subtle, Orwell eschews the jejune and the obvious, yet manages to limn a hauntingly evocative miniature of the Zeitgeist in this daring, nuanced, compelling account of a night spent in an air-raid shelter. In luminous, lapidary prose, with his customary brio, he has penned a spellbinding, fully imagined, piercingly scintillating* tour-de-force, which is surely destined to be a classic in years to come

*: or scintillatingly piercing, if you prefer; other permissible substitutions include 'numinous' for 'luminous', and 'elan' for 'brio' :-) Jan 8, 2009

bestiary ha! not five sentences into this article and all i could think of was this list (er, article).

The actor who plays the Joker in a blockbuster 2008 movie is gone. The cartoonist who created the Joker in 1939 is still around. He's Jerry Robinson, and he thinks the late Heath Ledger's acting turn in "The Dark Knight" is "a tour de force."

"A brilliant performance," said Robinson, 86, when E&P reached him by phone at the currently running Comic-Con in San Diego. "Very nuanced." Jul 27, 2008

reesetee Sionnach, your masterful reply denotes a Wordie member at the top of his game. In a deceptively simple paragraph, you have taken the reader on a rollicking yet darkly comic journey through the contrived nuances of list reviews. A fully imagined and tumultuous read.

Oh--and taut, too. Apr 4, 2008

sionnach Reesetee: your spare, haunting prose heralds the arrival of a bold new talent. With a deft, engaging touch you have limned an understated prose poem almost Nabokovian in its precisely honed legerdemain. A trompe l'oeil romp that will delight both discerning readers of klassy literary fiction and drooling Tom Klancy fans alike. Apr 4, 2008

reesetee Sionnach, this list weaves a rich tapestry of poignant and compelling words. Its highly engaging prose transcends the genre of Wordie lists.

*choke*

Sorry. I knew I couldn't pull that off with a straight face. Apr 4, 2008