Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Zindel, Paul (Vol. 26) - Paxton Davis

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PAXTON DAVIS

["The Pigman's Legacy" is] a mystery of sorts and also a tale of second chances for both John and Lorraine, not to mention the puzzled beneficiary of their ministrations and an elderly cleaning woman whom they bring into their derring-do. But … it's a rousing adventure yarn too. Mr. Zindel is an old hand at plunging from one episode to the next in such whirlwind fashion that a few implausibilities are concealed along the way. Here he deepens his narrative by alternating narrators chapter-by-chapter between John and Lorraine, which gives us not only John's headlong zest for action and Lorraine's perspective on what's happening but a fine change-of-pace that keeps the tale turning.

Sequels are risky, of course, as they too often merely try to imitate a previously successful formula. But Mr. Zindel is on to something bolder here: Instead of merely tacking it on, he's wrapped his sequel around its precursor, returning to old themes but enlarging...

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1. Introduction
2. Diane Farrell
3. Zena Sutherland
4. The Times Literary Supplement
5. Marilyn R. Singer
6. John Rowe Townsend
7. Diane Gersoni-Edelman
8. The Times Literary Supplement
9. Mary Silva Cosgrave
10. Zena Sutherland
11. BEVERLY A. HALEY and KENNETH L. DONELSON
12. Isabel Quigly
13. Zena Sutherland
14. Isabel Quigly
15. Stanley Hoffman
16. Joyce Milton
17. Maxine Fisher
18. Jack Forman
19. Cyrisse Jaffee
20. Sally Holmes Holtze
21. Peter Fanning
22. David Rees
23. Paxton Davis
24. Judith N. Mitchell
25. Margery Fisher
26. A. Thatcher
27. Copyright

1. Paul Zindel