Abstract

Watching the Detectives

The article provides information on two books, "Suspects," by David Thomson and "Flaubert's Parrot," by Julian Barnes. Thomson's metaphors, like his characters, are reincarnations, reruns of interpretive conceits from his criticism, and they have, too, the indiscriminate, equalizing quality of late-night television. "Suspects" elaborates the insomniac vision of America suggested in Thomson's previous book "Overexposures." The book is laid out as a marathon talk show, each character's entry the same length, like the six-minute time slot for an interview, and the movies remembered here are evoked in the style of bright ideas at 2 A.M., a mixture of glazed concentration and maniacal ingenuity. Barnes's "Flaubert's Parrot" is a criticism novel, too, and it's as full of questions as "Suspects" is full of statements.