Penelope Gilliatt, who was a film critic for the London Observer and The New Yorker, was simply one of the very finest film critics and short story writers of the second half of the 20th century. (She was part of the great team at the Observer with Kenneth Tynan.)Gilliatt's fiction is subtle and bears a skyrocketing intelligence. She is able to skim the surface of conversation, enticing her characters to reveal their hearts, their souls, through dialogue that at first seems to be arbitrary -- but which suddenly wraps her characters in fellow-feeling, with great emotional power and intellectual acumen. She is not for everybody. But for those willing to listen to her characters and follow them through their maze of wordplay, there will be few writers who can compare in terms of honesty and emotional impact. She can be scarily on target in detecting and rendering human aspiration, loneliness, and humor. She is also the author of the original screenplay for the much-honored film "Sunday Bloddy Sunday." I hope you will give her work a try.
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