Benchley, Peter (Vol. 4) - Benchley, Peter 1940–
Benchley, Peter 1940–
Benchley is an American novelist and writer for children. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 17-18.)
The jaws are a white killer shark's; their maulings keep a Long Island resort in terror. Like that shark, this first novel by Peter Benchley—third in the line of writing Benchleys—survives by steady motion: to still it for close scrutiny is to sink it. But "Jaws" keeps its pace; it is a fluid entertainment.
The shark's shreddings provide the novel's supports; the story is strung between them….
Even for a fish story, "Jaws" may be a mite malodorous. The shark is as disconcertingly omnipresent as the town is defenselessly flaccid before its peril. "No mortal man is going to catch that fish," intones Minnie the postmistress, and the way these mortals hand it she doesn't have to hedge her bets. Briney connections, occasional florid or sentimental lapses, stark manipulations impair the narrative....
[The entire page is 973 words long]
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