In 1998 our reviewer, Diana Postlethwaite, noted that while the author's fiction is often called Cheeveresque, this time out she "made me think of an earlier literary forebear, Henry James."

Or, as Scott Fitzgerald wrote, twisting the words of his literary forebears, "the victor belongs to the spoils."

Although perhaps not on the level of some of his literary forebears, he is none the less great company.

Edgar and Alice, in fact, could be literary forebears to Edward Albee's George and Martha in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Ms. Starn pays homage to her 19th-century literary forebears with wry headings at the start of each chapter, and also with her largely successful social satire.

In searching for literary forebears with whom to compare this preeminent Israeli modernist, critics have long suggested the likes of Faulkner and Joyce, even Kafka and Tolstoy.

But Robinson's latest novel made me think of an earlier literary forebear, Henry James, and particularly of his dark little masterpiece, "What Maisie Knew."

He had no literary forebears to build upon and so had to forge his explanations and descriptions from scratch, which he did brilliantly.

The literary forebear coming most quickly to mind is Popeye in Faulkner's "Sanctuary," while for a historical model one might look to Lee Harvey Oswald.

You get Du Bellay, in the 16th century, playing the cannibal and 'digesting' his literary forebears.