Word: zapp
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
This type of self-criticism and analysis will be familiar to readers of Small World and Changing Places, as will the characters of Phillip Swallow and Morris Zapp, who both play cameo roles here...
...heavily on the book and keeps it from having quite the buoyancy and sparkle of Lodge's earlier campus novels, Small World and Changing Places. However, a pair of holdovers from those novels, the long-suffering Professor Philip Swallow and his American counterpart, the wheeler-dealer Morris Zapp, put in welcome minor appearances...
...Zapp's walk-on particularly illustrates, Lodge has more verve in academic settings than in his conscientiously worked-up factory scenes, and naturally so. He taught literature at the University of Birmingham from 1960 to 1987, and still holds an honorary chair there. But in either sphere his writing displays the wicked eye of a born satirist. Swallow's smile exposes teeth set at odd angles, "like tombstones in a neglected churchyard." A receptionist at Vic's factory strokes her platinum-blond hairdo "as if it were an ailing pet." This is a novel that lives...
Potato-chip fans in Louisiana opt for the fiery seasonings in Zapp's delectable Cajun Craw-Tators, golden brown, crisply curled wafers that are burnished with a savory and peppery spice blend, or the even more tantalizing incendiary jalapeno chips, hot enough to drive the muncher straight to a can of cold Dixie beer. Judging by the high price of Maui chips (as much as $7.59 for a 7-oz. bag), Hawaiians like heavy grease -- as do certain Angelenos. Jurgensen's, a high-toned Southern California grocery, buys all it can get of these dark, oily chips. The steep price...
...Zapp is not alone in desiring this prize; he and other contenders keep meeting at academic conferences and trying to upstage one another. The man they must impress is Arthur Kingfisher, "doyen of the international community of literary theorists," whose approval will bring the award. Unfortunately, the Fisher King is filled with despair "at no longer being able to achieve an erection or an original thought...