Word: sleight
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...writes: "It sounded as if someone down inside his throat was crumpling a paper bag." In real life, Greenan is a devoted student and connoisseur of art, which may partly explain his remarkable success at supporting raving fantasy and very real suspense in a single story. With painterly sleight of hand, he recreates the fabulous landscape of a deranged artist's mind. It is a terrain at once fearful and frolicsome-as if Bruegel's earthy dancing peasantry had been set down in a demon-filled scene by Hieronymus Bosch...
...Baguio, summer capital of the Philippines. They were seeking "psychic surgery" at the hands of Antonio Agpaoa, who styles himself "Dr. Tony." Where Agpaoa ever picked up the title of Dr. is unclear; he is a school dropout (at the third grade) and, said Dorman, is a former sleight-of-hand artist. He claims that he can perform abdominal, heart and even brain surgery with his bare hands, using no anesthesia or aseptic precautions. He also claims that he can close the surgical opening without leaving a scar, which is perfectly logical, since his laying on of hands actually involves...
Palpable Authenticity. Behrman's ending is an embarrassing cliche, but his mastery of dialogue shines on every page, and the ease with which he routes characters on and off the scene amounts to sleight of hand. But what gives the book its real fascination is its palpable authenticity. Behrman has collected people and experiences like a connoisseur. He has known the rich, the beautiful and the talented, and he appears to have put them into his novel as vividly and intimately as in a diary. Freud, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Arnold Schoenberg and Irving Thalberg make cameo...
Next scene: Graves, who is the brother of Gunsmoke's Jim Arness, browses through photos of available M:I agents. He invariably chooses Barbara Bain, the group's sexy smoke screen; Martin Landau (in real life Barbara's husband), master of sleight of hand and disguise; Greg Morris, ace engineer; and Peter Lupus, strong man. The team sets off to the rescue without informing the audience of its plan-which is always a variation of the con game. Each operative wins the enemy's trust by playing a separate innocent role; together, they catch the villain...
...Harvard 9, Dartmouth 6--Yovicsin turned the sleight-of-hand on Dartmouth, as Harvard scored the winning touchdown on a 30-yard halfback pass off a double reverse, Bruce McIntyre to Bert Messenbaugh...