One of my favorite contemporary thriller writers, the pseudonymous Trevanian, has died. In their obit, the NYT ^[1] writes of the deceased author:

After John Leonard in The Times called “Shibumi” quite silly, he hastened to add, “It just happens to be the most agreeable nonsense in commercial fiction this spring.”

Well, yes, and, ironically, my guess is that twenty years from now people will most likely still be reading Trevanian, but virtually no one will have heard of Times critic Leonard. I’m not sure “Shimbumi” is finally so silly.