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Editor's Choice

Lincoln: A Novel

Lincoln: A Novel Gore Vidal Vintage Books; ISBN: 0375708766 As we approach a presidential election, it's gratifying to read about a buck-stops-here sort of president, one who wrote his own speeches and delivered them with great eloquence. Lincoln so valued the vision of the founders of our country that he gave himself fully to the preservation of its unity, determined that partisan differences not be allowed to fracture the integrity of the nation. Gore Vidal gives us an unglorified President Lincoln, his story complete with the criticisms, carping, and maneuvering of Lincoln's opponents on both right and left. Initially one wonders how this smart, unpretentious, ungainly man succeeded in being elected president, so despised was he by some members of Congress, even some he appointed to his Cabinet (where he could keep on eye on them). He himself admitted to ambition to achieve that office, but once elected he took the necessity of holding the union together as his deepest obligation and pursued that end with all his wit and persistence and great political adeptness. Vidal draws on letters, diaries, journals, and newspaper reports to give voice to his historical characters. The few fictional characters he has created thicken the tissue of this novel of intense political activity unable to prevent the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded as the Civil War ground on. This is a fascinating, authoritative, sharp-edged work not without humor, thanks to the sensibilities of its subject and its author. [CW]

History, Biography, Society

Herculaneum: Italy's Buried Treasure, Revised and Updated Edition

Herculaneum: Italy's Buried Treasure, Revised and Updated Edition Joseph Jay Diess Getty; ISBN: 0892361646 Reading about the A.D. 79 eruption of Vesuvius in the novel Pompeii moved me to search out this fine book on the consequences of the eruption in Herculaneum, the small city ten miles away also deeply buried by the volcanic avalanche. At Herculaneum not volcanic ash but thick pyroclastic matter covered the city and actually left wood intact and preserved skeletons so scientists have been able to analyze bones and teeth as well as possessions and learn a great deal about its residents. Initially archaeologists assumed most residents escaped the flow, but as excavations broadened hundreds of bodies were found at the marina, waiting for rescue by sea. A poignant letter is quoted by Diess from Pliny the Younger, whose mentor and uncle the naturalist Pliny died at Pompeii (described in the novel reviewed last month). Asked by the historian Tacitus to describe his uncle's death, he gives an eloquent description of Pliny's decision to sail towards the eruption, not only as a scientific observer but to try to rescue people and books from a great library there. This is pretty powerful stuff, presented clearly and illustrated with photos of the houses, murals, furniture and possessions, remains of bodies, even graffiti, as well as the public buildings archaeologists have gradually exposed such as Herculaneum's theater, Forum, and public baths. All provide a view into the daily lives of residents of this beautiful small city two thousand years ago. Diess effectively conveys the complexity of the undertaking to uncover the city and its culture. A fascinating glimpse into another way of living on our planet. [CW]

Touched With Fire: Five Presidents and the Civil War Battles That Made Them

Touched With Fire: Five Presidents and the Civil War Battles That Made Them James M. Perry PublicAffairs; ISBN: 1586481142 This is an excellent book for the Civil War neophyte, or for anyone interested in US political history of the late 19th century. The author's premise is that since more future US presidents fought in that war than in any other in US history, and used their war experiences as a prominent piece of their campaign biography, that it behooves us to study the major battles they fought in, and to look at their own personal roles in the fighting. There were in fact five US presidents who fought in the war; Grant of course, as well as Hayes, Garfield, McKinley and Harrison. What makes this a great book for someone who is early in the Civil War reading arc is its combination of deep trivia and shallow uber-history. In truth a significant part of the appeal of reading the history of The War Between the States is the discovery of charming little historical nuggets from which one can assemble one's own personal historical view. This book provides these aplenty, while also providing genuine insight into the characters of some of our nation's presidents. For the committed amateur historian of The War of Northern Aggression most of this material is familiar ground, but an interesting read nonetheless, and illuminating of the Reconstruction era as well. [MA]

The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan

The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan Christopher Benfey Random House; ISBN: 0375503277 There is a deep sense of melancholy and loss to this aesthetic history of the opening of Japan. For a sensitive artist in late nineteenth-century America the Gilded Age was a distasteful exercise in excess. Privileged aesthetes yearned for a society that valued spiritual life, and art that valued asceticism. Japan had existed in a state of self-imposed exile until forcibly opened by Admiral Perry's "black ships" of 1853. Japan represented something new to the disillusioned, a new culture whose values turned western culture on its head. The author follows the intertwined tales of several early western visitors to Japan as the focus of his study. Several of them are still well known today, most were well known in their time. Henry Adams, John La Farge, Lafcadio Hearn, and even Theodore Roosevelt were all part of the Japanese cult. Collectively these early wanderers brought home thousands of Japanese artifacts now housed at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, The Peabody-Essex Museum, and elsewhere. More important culturally were the visions and ideas they imported, which resonate today in art, architecture, and philosophy. [MA]

In Bluebeard's Castle: Some Notes Towards the Redefinition of Culture

In Bluebeard's Castle: Some Notes Towards the Redefinition of Culture George Steiner Yale University Press; ISBN 0300017103 Steiner's 'Notes Towards The Redefinition of Culture' looks back over the wreckage of faith in the wake of the holocaust and other brutalities of the twentieth century. What remains of humanism, of the enlightenment values enshrining rights and dignity after gas chambers and napalm? As education no longer includes classics we have lost the ability to understand and appreciate the culture of the past. From within the context of university life in the late 1960s Steiner considers what remains and what will become of our cultural traditions. His concern is with the decline of faith in progress and shared esthetic principles. While I find Steiner's concern with the youth counter-culture amusingly dated, the thrust of his argument remains cogent. Scientific and technical advances have thrown everything into a chaotic continual turmoil; cultural expression follows this trend. The lush style bursts with literary allusions, citations, and tangents that amplify various fascinating topics. The title refers to Bartok's opera. Judit opens one door after another, impelled by a mixture of curiosity, greed, and the logic of the sequence, all the time aware of the grave risk. This serves as an allegory for both scientific pursuit of knowledge despite its destructiveness and Western culture giddy with change and imminent disasters. [EG]

Goya

Goya Robert Hughes Alfred A. Knopf; ISBN: 0394580281 Robert Hughes is an art critic for Time and the author of about a dozen books including a brilliant history of Australia titled The Fatal Shore, a must-read for anyone visiting northern Spain titled Barcelona, and a best-selling but very opinionated and provocative history of art in Manhattan misleadingly titled American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America. Hughes can be arrogant and argumentative in a way that seems peculiar to some Australian intellectuals, but his work is also always meticulously researched, thoughtfully analytical, and chock full of sometimes startling insights. He is always worth reading. His new biography of Goya is a case in point. If you are at all interested in art, you can't not read it. Four strands run through the book. The first is Hughes' own very genuine life-long love affair with Goya's work. The second is a summary social, cultural, political, religious, economic and military history of Spain during Goya's lifetime. The third is a biography setting forth about all that is known or can be surmised about the life of Francisco Goya y Lucientes, born 1746, died 1828. The fourth is a critique of Goya's major work, both paintings and prints. There can be no doubt that Hughes has looked at this body of work long and hard and that he can help any of us to understand it better. It is probably fair to say that Goya was the last of the truly great 'Old Masters,' and also that he was among the first to have some 'modern' ideas about what might be done in painting. He was seminal and pivotal. There probably won't be a better book about him and his work available in your lifetime. [WW]

The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America Is Wracked by Culture Wars

The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America Is Wracked by Culture Wars Todd Gitlin Owlet; ISBN 0805040919 Though written a decade ago, this book takes effective stock of the fragmentation of progressive political forces in America. "The oddity is that the Left, which once stood for universal values, seems to speak today for select identities, while the Right, long associated with privileged interests, claims to defend the common good." Gitlin traces the decline of the traditional left. After the civil rights movement, women's movement, and opposition to the Vietnam war, the stage was set for entrenched activism on the basis of particular concerns. Aside from issues like environmentalism and human rights, there is no common good which binds together political groupings working for political reform. Gitlin contends that Reagan consolidated a conservative base of mainly white male voters. He drew upon racial divisions, middle class fears and a growing awareness of dwindling prosperity. This book also explores the effect of the current relativist thrust in intellectual life, especially at universities and among activist communities in the United States. The emphasis on special concerns of minority groups, diversity, and redress tends to divide and distract. This leaves little energy or attention for practical and effective opposition to policies detrimental to those unjustly disadvantaged. Worst of all, the tendency to become increasingly shrill and irrational erodes the quality of scholarship and judgment, and ultimately the ability to work collectively to achieve political objectives. [EG]

In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr.

In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr. Wil Haygood Knopf; ISBN: 037540354X You can't read this book with being consumed with a desire to see Sammy Davis Jr.'s night club act. He was a master tap dancer , a singer , a comedian , an actor , and a gifted impressionist. He'd run across the stage, grab an instrument and jam with the band. He never gave the same act twice, even when that act was part of an ongoing Broadway play. Whatever the audience needed, he gave them twice over. Seemingly no one ever saw his show without walking away amazed. Born in 1925 at the end of the vaudeville era, Davis was nonetheless at heart always a vaudevillian. He first graced the stage at the age of 5 and performed continuously until his death in 1990. The ancient tradition of whites performing in blackface was still alive in his early years and Sammy himself occasionally performed in "whiteface" as a child. His experience of racism was so deep that he scarcely recognized it, at least until he entered the army during World War II. The author Wil Haygood spends a lot of time on how uncomfortable Davis seemed to be in his own skin. His white wives and girlfriends, his sucking up to Frank Sinatra , and his friendship with Richard Nixon all contrast strangely with his early support of Dr. Martin Luther King, his friendship with John and Robert Kennedy, and his attempts to engage with the Black Power movement of the 60s. Nearly everyone remembers Sammy Davis, Jr. fondly, but read this book and you too will be a fan. [MA]

Apollo 11: The NASA Mission Reports, Volume 1

Apollo 11: The NASA Mission Reports, Volume 1 Robert Godwin (Editor), United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration Apogee Books; ISBN: 189652253X By the time you read this, George W. Bush will have announced his space initiative. Rumors abound that it will establish several concrete goals for NASA and, one hopes, funding as well. Word on the street is that lunar missions and manned Mars exploration are on the agenda. One can only hope that we have the political will to put our money where George W's mouth is. Fortunately NASA wonderfully documented our experiences going to the moon the first time. The sheer volume of data is astonishing. This series of books attempts to distill the mountain of information down to concise mission volumes covering Apollo 7 through Apollo 17. The only exception is Apollo 11, which contains three volumes itself. They have done a splendid job of presenting mission data. Each contains mission reports, pre- and post-mission briefings, press conference transcripts, data, discussions, diagrams, schematics and photographs. A truly priceless feature is the included CD ROM. It contains literally hundreds of photographs and drawings mostly in JPEG format (a few GIFs) as well as video content mostly in MPEG1 format (with a few Quicktime MOV files). The CD has its own browser-based interface, but the images can also be accessed directly. Sorry Mac folks, but the interface is directed at IBM PC compatible machines. These publications are definitely not storybooks, but the mounds of truly fascinating data certainly have a tale to tell. Can't say enough about the CD ROM. Outstanding. [GB]

Gemini 6: The NASA Mission Reports

Gemini 6: The NASA Mission Reports Robert Godwin (Editor), United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration Collector's Guide Pub; ISBN: 1896522610 Another outstanding example of the NASA Mission reports series that includes a volume each for Gemini 6 and Gemini 7. A volume on Gemini 12 is scheduled to be released this month. Equally fascinating information on the Gemini program and how it led to the moon landings in the Apollo program. For content details see the review above on the Apollo program. You'll love the CD ROMs. [GB]

Freedom 7: The NASA Mission Reports

Freedom 7: The NASA Mission Reports Robert Godwin (Editor), Steve Whitfield (Editor), United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration Apogee Books; ISBN: 1896522807 Manned space flight in the United States began with the Mercury program. Our first "heroes of the space age" were daring test pilots from different branches of the military, brought together to prove that the United States was not going to be left behind in the race to space. In yet another terrific addition to the Apogee Books Space Series, Godwin and Whitfield bring together a wealth of information about two of the Mercury missions: Freedom 7, our first sub-orbital manned mission and Friendship 7, the first orbital mission of John Glenn. Like the Apollo series reviewed above, the organization and presentation is first rate. Psst! The CD ROM is the best! [GB]

Mars: The NASA Mission Reports

Mars: The NASA Mission Reports Robert Godwin (Editor), United States National Aeronautics and Apogee Books; ISBN: 1896522629 As this review is being written, the Spirit rover has successfully deployed its wheels and is now "resting on its sixes" upon the Mars lander. If all has gone as planned, you have been enjoying a wealth of unbelievably gorgeous photographs beamed back to Earth as Spirit wheels around Mars' surface. (If you are not already aware, you can find them at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Rover Site.) The photographs are just the icing on the cake. The hope is that the megabits of daily data will provide conclusive evidence that the detected carbonates are from an aqueous origin, establishing the existence of surface water sometime in Mars' past. Water is the basis of life as we know it, and finding evidence makes past life of the microscopic kind more probable and future life of the macroscopic (two-legged) kind very possible. To future manned missions, water represents survivability, oxygen for breathing and hydrogen to fuel the return flight. Spirit and her sister mission, Opportunity, represent two more missions in a long line of historical trips to Mars undertaken by NASA (and others). While non-NASA mission details may not be forthcoming, Goodwin has compiled an unbelievable volume of data outlining NASA's Mars exploration. Like the Apollo, Gemini and Mercury Series of books, this volume contains raw NASA reports, compiled into a chronology of mission details. This volume covers missions beginning with Mariner 4's press kit from 1964 through Pathfinder and the recent Climate Orbiter. At the time of publication (2000), Spirit was on the "Proposed Future Missions" roster that includes Earth return and manned landings. Our history of Mars exploration is truly rich with discovery. In order to know where you're going, it helps to know where you've been. Oh, and the CD ROM has incredible content. [GB]

How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art

How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art Kathleen Meyer Ten Speed Press; ISBN: 0898156270 One of my most fond memories is sitting across a hole in a board above a pit at Pear Lake in the High Sierras of California. The completely open front of my "toilet" faced away from anyone who'd care and the breathtaking view was a spiritual concerto with multiple movements. I could have sat there forever. Often, when you're really "out there," even primitive facilities such as these aren't available. It's squatting time. How exactly does one do it au naturel? There's no better reference than Meyer's irreverent look at one of our most basic bodily functions. She addresses such issues as how and where to dig a hole, poop packing, coping with the trots and no paper in the great outdoors, and for ladies only: how to avoid peeing in your boots and other feminine concerns. The prose is friendly and fun, yet the seriousness of the environmental issues of human waste is not lost in the laughter. Meyer discusses how to minimize damage and risk to flora and fauna as well as how to avoid becoming a victim of both disease and parasitic infection. Her "Definitions of Shit" at the end of the book are priceless. This book may be humorous, but the serious outdoor enthusiast will find it invaluable. [GB]

Sleeping on Potatoes: A Lumpy Adventure from Manzanar to the Corporate Tower

Sleeping on Potatoes: A Lumpy Adventure from Manzanar to the Corporate Tower Carl Nomura Erasmus Books; ISBN: 0970194730 Its title is apt for this homely, unpretentious, and very American memoir of growing up during the depression. The surprise is that its author, born in Montana in 1922, was the child of Japanese immigrants and that even the deeply shameful, frustrating experience of being interned at the WW II Manzanar detention camp for enemy aliens failed to derail his successful pursuit of the American dream. He was just short of graduation from high school, where a teacher's false assumptions had impelled him to excel in trigonometry and Latin, but the Manzanar experience made him determined to further his education. Ultimately he earned a Ph.D. in physics from University of Minnesota. There he also tracked down the love of his life, Louise Takeda, whom he'd met briefly before being drafted (his status having been changed from ineligible as an enemy alien to 1A). He went to work for Honeywell as a research physicist, worked to develop pure crystals, he and his wife had four children, he took on increasing trouble-shooting and management responsibilities, regretted not having pursued math, but rolled with the punches and obviously has led a satisfying life. The book is warmed by his sense of humor and the pleasure Nomura takes in life, and the sense of curiosity that has led him in retirement to work at writing as well as gardening, travel to Kenya, Japan, Mexico, trouble-shooting for a local non-profit, and of course poker, which had helped him finance college. A fresh and satisfying book. [CW]

In Defense of Elitism

In Defense of Elitism William A. Henry III Anchor; ISBN 0385479433 Why should elites need to be defended? In these strange times, elite has become a bad word in the United States. Instead of signifying our society's most capable, knowledgeable and successful members, worthy of our respect, the term is often used scornfully, to indicate those we suspect of taking on airs, whose attainments might only be the result of some unfair advantage. To correct past inequalities, goals have been set to achieve diversity in hiring and college admissions. This has stressed equality of outcomes instead of equality of opportunity. Henry argues vehemently against affirmative action, indeed against any criteria of judgment beyond merit in the arts, sciences, politics, and business. He does nothing to mollify this unpopular point of view; he is well aware that it will offend many. What distinguishes Henry from conservative critics with similar complaints is that Henry is what one might term an 'old fashioned leftist.' He shows how the new left has gone too far in the direction of enshrining egalitarianism. In its extremes, this tendency has even led to rejecting rational arguments and procedures that fail to arrive at the presupposed 'fair' outcome. By disdaining the good in pursuit of the ideal, American society becomes more divided and almost antagonistic to excellence. I find Henry's argument has merit. The style and erudition of his essays on education, affirmative action, and gender roles make for involving and illuminating reading. [EG]

Fiction

The Course of Honor

The Course of Honor Lindsay Davis Random House UK; ISBN: 0099227428 Here's an engaging historical novel set in ancient Rome, but with contemporary relevance. In this presidential election year it's useful to examine lives of people who have governed with integrity and in the best interests of those they represent, as a balance to the cynicism inspired by so many self-interested politicians. One such honorable statesman was the Roman emperor Vespasian, and Lindsay Davis, author of the much-loved Marcus Didius Falco series of crime novels set in ancient Rome, brings him to life brilliantly here through the eyes of the love of his life, Caenus. Vespasian, born into a poor but respectable rural family, lived a full life as a senator and military commander in Germany, Britain, and Egypt before being acclaimed emperor by his troops as his predecessor Vitellius was losing authority. And he, and his son Titus, brought Rome a hundred years of calm, good government, and support for the arts, with the Temple of Janus being replaced under Vespasian by the Temple of Peace. Davis opens the novel at the young Vespasian's arrival in Rome with his brother when he meets Caenus, then a highly-skilled, prickly secretary and slave in the house of Antonia, mother of Claudius. These two lives intertwined in spite of the prohibition of senators (not to mention emperors) from marrying slaves or freedwomen, and Davis gives us both of them complete with their rough edges and idiosyncrasies, providing a rich context for an understanding of Roman society in the first century A.D. She incorporates the historical facts offered by Suetonius in his The Twelve Caesars but enriched by the personalities implied by these facts. [CW]

The Hell Screen: A Mystery of Ancient Japan

The Hell Screen: A Mystery of Ancient Japan I.J. Parker St. Martin's Minotaur; ISBN: 031228795X This here is a genuine whodunit, set in ancient Japan. Akitada Sugawara, the hero of Rashomon Gate , is returning from his successful tenure as a provincial governor, which had been something of a mixed promotion resulting from his prior sleuthing/meddling. He has to travel ahead of his family in order to visit with his estranged mother, who is dying, and he stops for an evening in a wayside temple and views an incredibly realistic and detailed screen depicting visions of hell. From here the mystery deepens into 11th-century Japanese court intrigue, street life, family relations, religion, and popular entertainment. The author uses his extensive knowledge of medieval Japan to take one on a cultural tour, while spinning out a thoroughly entertaining novel. True this doesn't transport in quite the same way Death of a Red Heroine did (see review below) but it keeps you snapping the pages, while sneaking just a morsel of education in when you're not looking. What more could you want? [MA]

Death of a Red Heroine

Death of a Red Heroine Qiu Xiaolong Soho Press, Inc; ISBN: 1569472424 Every so often you read a book that transcends its genre. A book, any book, has the potential to take you someplace you've never been, but beyond that to put you into the shoes of someone you're never going to be. It is most delicious when this experience comes to you unexpectedly, as it has for me in Qiu Xiaolong's Death of a Red Heroine. This is what one might call a "police procedural" novel, not quite a mystery, although there is something of the "whodunnit" here. It's set in Shanghai in the middle 1990s, and China is in the midst of its transition to a market economy. Western ideas and concepts compete with those of the Marxist/Maoist, and the ground is shifting under everyone's feet. A National Model Worker has been murdered and Inspector Chen Cao, a rising star in the Party, is investigating. What sets the novel apart from the general run of crime novels is the author's ability to put you into this place, physically, emotionally, and philosophically. As a crime novel this is quite good, as a transporter into what it feels like to be deeply part of the Shanghai way of life the book is most excellent. I can hardly wait to read the next Inspector Chen novel A Loyal Character Dancer . [MA]

Carlucci

Carlucci Richard Paul Russo Ace Books (Penguin Group USA); ISBN:0441010547 Richard Paul Russo published three novels featuring San Francisco Police Department Detective Frank Carlucci: Destroying Angel in 1992,Carlucci's Edge in 1995, and Carlucci's Heart in 1997. Ace collected and republished them this past September as Carlucci in this handsome 610-page trade paperback edition. Good move, Ace. In this reviewer's humble opinion they are among the most overlooked and underappreciated novels of the 1990s, probably because they don't fit neatly into any of the standard genres. They are detective stories, certainly, because Carlucci is a cop who tracks down murderous perps, but bookstores shelve them with the science fiction because they are set in a near-future postapocalyptic San Francisco which features, in the downtown Tenderloin district, a huge walled-off radioactive crater called "the Core" wherein live and breed some pretty weird mutant folks. Outside the cratered zone lies a San Francisco pretty much as we know it now: a world of strange religions, corrupt government, failing economy, petty crime, drug addicts, elderly street people, young punks, sexual perverts, mutants, and a few decent folks like Carlucci, just trying to hold it all together. Think cyberpunk without much cyber or Bladerunner without many androids, and you will be in the right universe. Interesting and unexpected bonus features are the many really finely-drawn female characters: Paula the nightclub singer, Sookie the pubescent skateboarder, Amy the streetwise, Saint Katherine the villain, and many more, even Isabel, a longtailed macaque. What a deal for only $16.00. [WW]

The Time Traders

The Time Traders Andre Norton Baen Books; ISBN: 0671318292 The original Time Traders was published in 1958 and a sequel, Galactic Derelict, was subsequently published in 1959. This updated version contains both books in one volume. (In case you didn't know, Alice Norton found it necessary to change her nom de plume to "Andre" to make her name sound more masculine for marketing purposes. An unfortunate sign of those times.) You may have enjoyed these stories as a youngster, and this version maintains the same sense of intrigue and adventure as the originals. What has changed are a few of the details involving political and technological differences brought about during the intervening 40-plus years since original publication. While making these alterations was not really necessary to the plot, reading these stories again is an interesting exercise in memory to see if you can notice the differences between this and the 1958 version. Time Traders/Galactic Derelict is a story about a reluctant recruit, Ross Murdock, and a cadre of American agents caught up in a race to find an ancient source of technology that can be used against American interests. Murdock et al travel around the world, through time and across the galaxy in their quest for the illicit booty. The style is vintage Norton, resulting in an engaging page-turner that you won't quite remember, but are sure to enjoy. [GB]

In the Heart of the Valley of Love

In the Heart of the Valley of Love Cynthia Kadohata University of California Press; ISBN:0520207289 This is a novel about a 19-year-old woman named Francie, of mixed race but culturally Japanese American, who lives in Los Angeles in the year 2052. It is the Los Angeles we know now, but gone bad, in some ways very bad. The population has grown considerably. Most folks are "minorities" of some sort or other. The rich are richer and the poor are poorer. The economy, except for the black market, is dysfunctional. Food, water, and gasoline are in short supply, rationed. Meaningful jobs are few and far between. The government—federal, state and local—is by turns corrupt, brutal, arbitrary, distant, and certainly unresponsive to the needs of the people. People get "disappeared." Religions have proliferated and gotten even wackier. Schools exist mostly to keep volatile youths off the streets and away from confrontations with the police. Pollution is totally out of control. Every year seems to bring some new disease. With pluck and good humor, Francie tries to cope, to make ends meet, to find some love and meaning in her life, to create a family for herself out of friends and acquaintances. This is a novel of character and milieu, a novel about human fortitude and courage and compassion in a very hostile environment. It's about someone without many resources reaching way down inside herself and finding the guts and will to survive. Some things to think about in this novel. A bonus is the beautiful writing. Kadohata never misses a beat, just the right word, the carefully-turned phrase. Thanks to the University of California Press for keeping this in print. [WW]

The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith

The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith Cordwainer Smith NESFA Press; 0915368560 Cordwainer Smith's science fiction is in a class of its own. His characteristic style combines elements of folktale and grim worldliness, at once playfully light and heartlessly true. His stories go remarkably far; they comprise something like a future history of mankind extending into distant millennia. Technocratic rule presents enormous challenges, he shows, even if technology eradicates want. Many of the stories feature a race of genetically-engineered 'underpeople' who struggle for liberty and dignity, and slowly win it. Science fiction renderings from the middle of the twentieth century of racial conflict, struggles for liberation, set in a dystopian future, can make for stale or dated reading. The drama and poignancy of Smith's work rests on his compelling characters and unique mythic storytelling mode. "A Planet Named Shayol," a phenomenal story in this collection, concerns a group of prisoners enduring the ultimate punishment delivered by the Instrumentality of Mankind. They suffer immensely as immortal factories of donor organs. Despite the depredations of this hellish situation, the prisoners come to terms with each other and their fate. This is characteristic of Smith: Protagonists confront biotechnology and technocratic justice gone mad with courage, brilliance and perseverance. Those who have not yet read Cordwainer Smith and appreciate the finest of literary science fiction have a treat awaiting them. Those familiar with the short stories in this collection will know them through various paperback editions discovered in used bookstores. Fortunately Smith's complete short works are now collected into a single well-presented volume. [EG]

Children's Books

Boris's Glasses

Boris's Glasses Peter Cohen; pictures by Olof Landström R & S Books; ISBN 9129659426 Here's a picture book with an amusing text and witty, beautifully-colored pictures that convey to the reader/listener how Boris discovers he has a vision problem. He can't read the yellow pages. His TV screen is fuzzy, but his TV repairman assures him there's no problem with his TV and tells him to go get his eyes checked. So, he schedules a visit to the eye doctor. He rather likes the diagnosis: he's pronounced an astigmatic—the word has an impressive ring to it. And when he gets his new glasses, he's quite shocked at all he can see, sharp and clear (including how pretty Gudrun at his favorite bakery is). He gets a job as an overseer in a big radio factory; he makes a point of stopping at the bakery again. But he also discovers that his house is a lot messier than he'd realized, and that TV shows aren't as good as he thought when he couldn't really see them. Just about to throw his glasses into the trash, he reconsiders and decides that after all, he does want to be able to see certain things. Kids who wear glasses will like being able to laugh at this, and kids who don't will empathize. [CW]

Jacob Two-Two Meets The Hooded Fang

Jacob Two-Two Meets The Hooded Fang Mordecai Richler Tundra Books; ISBN 088776424X This slim volume has thrills, surreal horror, humor, daring rescues, and monstrous villains who turn out to be pathetic. It's all here. With six-page chapters, large type, and numerous entertaining illustrations, this book best suits a young reader making an early foray into unassisted reading. Jacob Two-Two has such a large family he repeats everything he says twice, just to be heard. His acute imagination runs away with an uncomfortable interchange with a local merchant. Or perhaps he really is captured, tried, and sentenced for rudeness and sent to the lowest, dampest dungeon of Slimer's Isle. With the help of children superheroes (his siblings in towel capes), Jacob plans a daring escape. It isn't clear whether this is a game that Jacob can't distinguish from reality or if he really has to endure a nightmare parody of the adult world. Misguided heartless authority gets seriously mocked. Kids prevail. This is great stuff. [EG]

Fairy Tales

Fairy Tales E. E. Cummings; pictures by John Eaton Voyager Books/Harcourt Brace; ISBN: 0156298953 My kids loved these stories by poet E. E. Cummings, as did friends in college. Happily the book is still in print for discovery by new generations of children and college kids, the delicate, evocative color illustrations intact. Cummings wrote them for his little girl, and fantastic tales they are. A parent (or elder sibling) of a typical two- or three-year old will take particular pleasure in the first story, "The Old Man Who Said Why." It features a sweet-natured faerie who lives on a distant star and never grows old, and who hears and resolves the problems of faeries on the other stars. One morning he's awakened to the sound of millions of faeries coming to him all with the same problem: the old man who lives on a steeple on the moon who always says "why" is driving them crazy. When the problem-solving faerie visits him and gets only "why" in response to his questions, he replies that if the old man says it again, he'll fall from his perch all the way to earth. And of course he asks "why?" But as he falls, the very ancient little old man gets younger and younger. By the time he touches down on earth, he's about to be born. Amusing juxtapositions of the mundane and the fantastic (the faeries fly upstairs to have their naps; they breakfast on a plate of light and glass of silence; and after their exertions, they straighten their neckties) will delight children and their elders. The other three stories, all set on earth, are "The Elephant & the Butterfly," "The House that Ate Mosquito Pie," and "The Little Girl Named I." [CW]

The Solitaire Mystery

The Solitaire Mystery Jostein Gaarder; illustrations by Hilde Kramer Boulevard Books; ISBN 042515999X This novel was an immense pleasure to read, from start to finish. Hans Thomas and his father drive from a small town in Norway to Athens, Greece, in order to attempt to reunite with Hans' mother who left the family years ago. Told from the first-person perspective of a boy, the style is both straightforward and whimsical. Hans Thomas's father takes every opportunity to pursue eccentric amateur philosophical speculation. This makes for highly entertaining dialog. The story quickly moves from quirky fun to a uniquely compelling work of fiction. Gaarder combines a fantasy story with a philosophical puzzle and a family drama. Without giving too much away, Hans obtains a book containing a strange story. The events in this book within a book parallel Hans' own adventure and feature an escalating set of revelations. Stories within stories propel the reader to a very satisfying climax. Gaarder renders rich metaphysical and moral topics engagingly, with humor and a light touch, suitable for kids and a real treat for adults. [EG]