She wrote: "This work was begun many years ago, as a literary exercise, to meet the personal requirements of the writer."

This entire literary exercise is unbelievable and, worst of all, a bore.

Two things raise the book above the level of a literary exercise, however.

Writing Buddha was, in fact, ceasing to be a literary exercise.

An ironic twist, to be sure, but as with most such literary exercises, the aftertaste doesn't last long enough.

It had not been a literary exercise after all.

This is a literary exercise of the highest order.

Was it a literary exercise or a true confession?

As a literary exercise, it was not the first subway endurance test.

Her stories are never merely literary exercises in making one's flesh creep.