Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Crichton, Michael (Vol. 90) - Mim Udovitch (review date 1 October 1995)

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Mim Udovitch (review date 1 October 1995)

SOURCE: "Leapin' Lizards!" in The New York Times Book Review, October 1, 1995, pp. 9-10.

[In the following excerpt, Udovitch favorably assesses The Lost World as a thriller but ridicules Crichton for his allusions to what she terms contemporary "hot-button" issues.]

The director James Cameron once observed that criticizing Jurassic Park (the movie, not the book) is like criticizing a roller coaster for not being Proust. Fans of Mr. Cameron's deft touch in such works as Aliens and both Terminator movies will recognize the grace with which he sidesteps the issue of a direct comparison between Jurassic Park (in this instance and hereafter, primarily the book, but the movie too) and À la Recherche du Temps Perdu. He is no doubt aware of the superficial similarities between the two. Both Michael Crichton and Proust take on the inherently problematic emotional...

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1. Introduction
2. ∗Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Pauline Kael (review date 9 November 1981)
   2. David Denby (review date 16 November 1981)
   3. Gary Jennings (review date 11 November 1990)
   4. Ronald Preston (review date 21 November 1990)
   5. J. P. Telotte (essay date 1990)
   6. Robert Nathan (review date 9 February 1992)
   7. Ian Buruma (review date 23 April 1992)
   8. Karl Taro Greenfeld (review date 11 May 1992)
   9. Julian Loose (review date 22 October 1992)
   10. Stephen Jay Gould (review date 12 August 1993)
   11. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt (review date 6 January 1994)
   12. John Schulian (review date 16 January 1994)
   13. Patt Morrison (review date 16 January 1994)
   14. Julie Burchill (review date 22 January 1994)
   15. Geraldine Brennan (review date 30 January 1994)
   16. Douglas Kennedy (review date 4 February 1994)
   17. Michael Coren (review date 21 February 1994)
   18. Francine Prose (review date October 1994)
   19. Publishers Weekly (review date 21 August 1995)
   20. Mark Annichiarico (review date 15 September 1995)
   21. Mim Udovitch (review date 1 October 1995)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright