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Fiction ChronicleMay 2005 Ignorant armies clash by night by Max Watman A review of Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro; A Changed Man, by Francine Prose; American Purgatorio, by John Haskell; Saturday, by Ian McEwan; & Winslow in Love, by Kevin Canty. I have never felt that I have an obligation (professional or personal) to conceal the endings of books from people. I’ve always suspected that anyone who hasn’t figured out where the book is headed after 300 pages of warm-up probably isn’t reading very well. An author has been showing his hand for one hundred thousand words, detailing the minds and actions of his subjects, his bent of mind and bag of tricks, and you have no idea? It’s not my job to protect the soft-headed from their failings. I would never reveal the crucial clue in an Agatha Christie book, because that is the focus of the mystery genre, where the metered revelation of information and subsequent amplification of suspense is the whole game. Quality-Lit novels use a different strategy. If a book that is not a mystery is ruined by the revelation of some element of the story, it is fair to wonder what that book was offering the ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 23 May 2005, on page 61 Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Ignorant-armies-clash-by-night-1330
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by Max Watman Reviews of "The View from Castle Rock: Stories," by Alice Munro; "Talk Talk," by T.C. Boyle; and "Special Topics in Calamity Physics," by Marisha Pessl. by Stefan Beck On The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta, Zone One by Colson Whitehead, The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco & Cain by José Saramago. by Stefan Beck On The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Slim by Jonathan Coe, Emily, Alone by Stewart O'Nan, Swamplandia! by Karen Russell & The Pale King by David Foster Wallace. by Stefan Beck On Freedom, 03, A Visit from the Goon Squad & Dogfight, A Love Story.
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