Thriller Examined
‘THOUGH Arnold Wall, the compére, may have felt that a recent Book Shop session was too serious, it did not really need spicing with his Screwfly rhyme. Beginning with Professor Rhodes’s all too brief sketch of Chekhov, ‘we moved on to J. C. Reid’s com--petent review of a book on the atom ‘bomb. But what entertained me most
was Bruce Mason’s astringent review of Ngaio Marsh’s latest detective story. Not myself given to reading this kind of fiction, I felt that much of what Mr. Mason said of it as symptomatic of the age was true. Writers like Miss Marsh, who also pay elaborate homage to Shakespeare or Christian theology, give one the uneasy feeling that they are cultural saboteurs paying lip service to one deity with a careful eye to the main chance in that world where the detective story, as such, is but one head of a time-killing monster. Mr. Mason expressed similar sentiments, with rather neat word play. Yet I cannot see one of Miss Marsh’s many admirers paying a more exact tribute to her positive
qualities as a writer.
Westcliff
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540730.2.22.2
Bibliographic details
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 784, 30 July 1954, Page 10
Word count
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186Thriller Examined New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 784, 30 July 1954, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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