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Path: utzoo!watmath!jmsellens
From: jmsellens@watmath.UUCP (John M Sellens)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Sidney Sheldon: The World's Best Writer?
Message-ID: <13965@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Apr-85 19:07:26 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.13965
Posted: Mon Apr 15 19:07:26 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 15-Apr-85 23:37:23 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 53

The April/85 Esquire contains a review written by James Kaplan
of Sidney Sheldon's latest book "If Tomorrow Comes".  The review
itself is entertaining, but some of the best stuff is the quotes
Kaplan has selected from the book.  The following are a few examples
of Sheldon's writing.  Kaplan calls Sheldon "the most distinctive
prose stylist since Ring Lardner" and I think you'll agree.


  He heard a shout behind him and felt a knife sing past his head.
  Zing!  Another, and then he was out of range.  He dressed in a culvert,
  pulling his shirt and pants over the sticky Jell-O, and squished his
  way to the depot, where he caught the first bus out of town.
    Six months later, he was in Vietnam.


  While the audience stood hushed, Boris Melnikov reached across the
  board and played the queen's gambit decline opening, moving his queen
  pawn two squares.


  The idea of a stable homelife and children was suddenly immensely
  appealing.  It seemed to him that ever since he could remember, he
  had been running.  It was time to stop.
    They were married in the town hall in Tahiti three days later.


  His first sexual experience was with a pretty contortionist, and for
  years she was the high-water mark that other women had to live up to.


  Between here rapidly flicking tongue and the friction of the warm,
  viscous Jell-O, it was an erotic experience beyond description.  In
  the middle of it, the bathroom door flew open and the Great Zorbini
  strode in.


  The estate appeared vastly different from the way it had looked the
  evening before, when it was brightly lit and crowded with laughing
  guests.  Now everything was dark and bleak.


  When Joe Romano saw the television news, he laughed aloud.  The
  Whitney girl was a lucky bitch.  I'll bet prison was good for her.
  She must be really horny by now.  Maybe one day we'll meet again.


  For an ungaurded moment, Tracy's mind embraced the memory of the walls
  of the penitentiary, and she gave an involuntary shiver.


  When Tracy walked into the terminal, it seemed to her that everyone
  was staring at her accusingly.  That's what a guilty conscience
  does, she thought.