The knowingness with which Ishiguro employs this excessively bookish machinery might make "When We Were Orphans" seem like another deft postmodern exercise, a historical novel that's not concerned with the life of the past so much as with its literary assumptions.
The New Yorker, March 13 , 2000P. 97 Briefly Noted book review of "Gertrude and Claudius" (Knopf; $23) by John Updike... Updike's portrayal of Gertrude and Claudius' thwarted affections is not just a deft literary exercise but an affecting — and funny — invocation of the abundant desires of what Hamlet called "this too too solid flesh".
"Baracketology," as ESPN has named the exercise, is, for the President's admirers, another example of Obama's deft use of popular culture to connect with his fellow-citizens and advance policy goals.
A Scrabble game between Colleen and Matthew, newly returned to the home where he grew up, becomes a deft and touching exercise in thwarted communication.
According to the Solaris project description, once participants had a bit of practice, they were able to exercise deft control over the liquid.
Refn is a deft filmmaker, but this is a daft exercise of violence for the sake of staging violence.
That, in turn, illustrated how deft Smith is in planning this type of exercise.
What might have been a dry academic exercise was invariably brought vividly to life by his deft evocation of the personality and idiosyncrasies of his varied cast of characters.
Theodora exercised considerable influence, and though she was never coregent, her superior intelligence and deft handling of political affairs caused many to think that it was she, rather than Justinian, who ruled Byzantium.
It's going to take some deft diplomatic skills over dinner to try to get these two sides together before those exercises begin.
