Word: sheed
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FICTION: Daniel Martin, John Fowles The Honourable Schoolboy, John le Carré ∙ The Professor of Desire, Philip Roth ∙ Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison ∙ Transatlantic Blues, Wilfrid Sheed...
TRANSATLANTIC BLUES by Wilfrid Sheed. Dutton; 312 pages...
Television situation comedy does a pretty good job of airing and disarming class anxieties. Most modern American fiction, on the other hand, remains generally psychological. In contrast, British novels still draw their deepest breaths from society and manners. Wilfrid Sheed, a wily English-born Catholic intellectual, can work both sides of the North Atlantic. Sheed's sharp, entertaining essays and reviews have earned him a reputation as one of America's best literary journalists; he is also a judge for the Book-of-the-Month Club. His previous novels, which include A Middle Class Education, Max Jamison...
...amiably jaded wit-on the modern church, the absurdities of "making it," celebrities as praise junkies, fake humility as an asset, indeed turning anything into an asset. Chatworth even considers publishing his confessional tape to "launch that new career as Mr. Honesty." The novel is a promising departure for Sheed too. It is much looser and more vigorously humorous than his previous fiction. As a parody of personality packaging and what happens when the package is unbundled, Chatworth may be, as the author says, "desolately cute." But his confusions raise an unsettling question: Did he sell...
...story. But an eight-minute fight cannot be spun out for more than a few chapters, and most of Shadow Box is more or less conventional, and excellent, sports reporting. The chapters on Muhammad Ali are delightful, and Ali is not easy to write about, as Wilfrid Sheed and Norman Mailer have amply proved...