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| | The New Yorker: The Critics: Books |
 | | To his surprise, safe behind the obscene mask, he found himself suddenly free to play the clown, and the act got laughs as never before. |
 | | It would have added immensely to the novel if we were, in fact, permitted to glimpse Williams’s art, or to get some sense of the pleasure it must at times have given him. |
 | | The novel is divided into acts, like a drama, with the principal players—Williams, Walker, Walker’s unhappy wife, Aida, Williams’s even unhappier wife, Lottie—repeatedly breaking in to speak from their distinctive points of view. |
| www.newyorker.com /critics/books/articles/051212crbo_books (2760 words) |
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