Word: sheed
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...WILFRID SHEED...
...book reviewer of the highest order, and a scorner most subtle, Wilfrid Sheed can light up another man's novel, amuse the children by blowing smoke rings for a quarter of an hour, and then stub out the butt with a gesture so incisive that the wretched author resolves to forswear literature and apprentice himself to a tree surgeon. But Sheed is also a novelist himself, so skilled that a few years ago, in Max Jamieson, he managed to write a strong and eloquent novel whose main character was a critic. The feat was the equivalent of successfully memorializing...
...Senator who wants, or seems to want, to be President. A peculiarity of the novel is that Casey's character becomes progressively less vivid and distinct as the narration advances, until by the last page he has totally disappeared from view. This is no accident, and, in fact, Sheed may have hit on the perfect literary device to portray the evolution of that strange political subspecies-public illusionists, private delusionists-whose members become candidates for the U.S. presidency...
With Couples, Updike's next novel, Updike took an ambitious stroke at resolving his darting allegiances. It was flawed by flatness and defensive negativism. Wilfrid Sheed at the time accurately described the type of community Updike etched...
...villain, whom Sheed labelled the priest of the group, recognized his restless neighbors' need for community ritual, approving their matings and swappings and supplying them with the necessary sports, parties, and outings. His nemesis, and the figure closest to a hero that Updike could then manage, embodied freedom and real earthiness, wells of love for individuals. He was, in short, a throwback to a time when a man could build his life straight up from the ground. He only appealed to his friends' and ladies' private affections, ignoring their needs for social exposure, and was thus destroyed. Unfortunately, the novel...