Word: plot
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...events (Lancelot loves Gwenyver but she's married to his lord, Arthur), its's because modern readers and rewriters faced with the intricacy of Middle English have simplified the idiom to an extreme, ignored the subtleties in style and reduced the work to the lowest common denominator of its plot. In this shape, King Arthur is kid stuff...
...wife unexpectedly died instead--and perhaps that explains the grim tone. But the novel never surmounts a cloying obsession with slow death and supernatural reincarnation; in the end, Burgess offers only black humor and muddled despair as Death wins out. The result is a novel long on bizarre plot twists and short on ideas: pointless death makes for a pointless novel...
Burgess manages to tie all the sprawling strands together in the last few chapters of the novel; by then, however, the aimless nature of the book has defeated the reader. Burgess' merry-go-round theory--keep the plot moving, change the characters--leaves Beard's Roman Women without much in the way of continuity except the grinning Grim Reaper...
...shallow plot of Mattress breeds shallow characterizations. A gaggle of supporting actors is thus given freedom to attempt to steal the show, and two in particular come very close to succeeding. Peter Grand turns in a sparkling performance as the Wizard, a show-biz type turned minister. In the first act, he offers a frighteningly accurate imitation of Bob Ewbank, host of the Newlywed Game. And he walks off with the second act by virtue of an impressive display of magic tricks...
...Shea is also good as King Sextimus, the mute sex-fiend, hamming up his mime as much as possible. His gestures tend to get repetitive, but again the plot, which has him chasing courtiers around the stage every few minutes, is more at fault than the actor. Shea peaks in a number where he attempts to explain the facts of life to his son, the erstwhile bridegroom...