In 1992, in answer to the Swiss academic Peter von Matt's question "What is literature for: truth, education or enjoyment?", Reich-Ranicki chose the last, and his essays and reviews display the qualities he valued in others' writing: accessibility, conciseness, sensual appeal, suspense, firm structure and wit.
Wisely retaining the stark lineaments and basic dramatis personae of the original — the Greeks knew something about suspense and structure, after all — he has found clever Deep South analogues for the workings of fate that ruthlessly hem in our desperate heroine.
But Craig and David pushed me to see that writing is more about structure, suspense, making the audience uncomfortable.
Ribchester provides the dual structure, mounting suspense and roster of suspicious characters typical of a traditional whodunnit.
This structure undermines suspense but creates opportunities for ominous foreshadowing — for instance, in the magistrate's habit of asking his children, "Are you there?" Winter, by Christopher Nicholson (Europa).
There's certainly little foreplay to be found: the chorus often leads an H-D-H song, a bit of anti-magic that reveals the big trick at the outset but somehow manages to build on that foundation a structure for suspense.
McKnight has fused poetic structure with the suspense thriller.
"Port Out, Starboard Home," developed with FoolsFury Theater Company in San Francisco, has a sturdy theatrical setting (a cruise) and an effective structure built for suspense.
The first play of his that I ever saw featured self-crucifixion in the living room - certainly not your everyday happy families scenario - and Kelly often uses classic suspense techniques that have the structure of a good thriller in the way they eke out information.
"Life After Genius" has the structure of a suspense novel: it begins with Mead's unexplained return home eight days before he is due to graduate and on the eve of what was supposed to be a ground-breaking public presentation of his work on number theory.
