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Subject:
Books Update: The Man of the House
Date:
Fri, 9 Mar 2001 22:35:29 -0500
From: The New York Times Direct
To: medei@UOL.COM.BR
Books Update from NYTimes.com
Friday, March 9, 2001
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The Man of the House
1. In Sunday's Book Review: John Aloysius Farrell's "Tip O'Neill"
2. Also Reviewed This Week: Muriel Spark's "Aiding and Abetting"
3. Audio Reading: Allegra Goodman
4. New in Stores: Martha Tod Dudman's "Augusta, Gone"
5. In the News: Beyond Hypertext: Novels With Interactive Animation
6. New on the Best-Seller List: "The Vendetta Defense"
7. In the Forums: Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America"
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1. In Sunday's Book Review: John Aloysius Farrell's "Tip O'Neill"
=======================================================
The Last Liberal
Tip O'Neill never wavered in his belief that government could cure social ills.
TIP O'NEILL
"Tip O'Neill: And the Democratic Century," a look at the
life of the late Speaker of the House, is "more than the
definitive biography of a flawed but startlingly successful
old-fashioned political leader," according to our reviewer,
Mario M. Cuomo, the former governor of New York. It is also,
Cuomo writes, "a guided tour through American governmental
history from the beginning of the New Deal through the
Reagan years, featuring the struggle between two
larger-than-life political champions and their ideologies --
Ronald Reagan and the Old Conservatism against Tip O'Neill
and the New Deal liberalism. It was a battle over the
nation's political soul."
And the Democratic Century.
By John Aloysius Farrell.
Illustrated. 776 pp. Boston:
Little, Brown & Company. $29.95.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/03/11/reviews/010311.11cuomot.html?0309bk
Related Links
First Chapter: 'Tip O'Neill'
Also Available:
The obituary of Tip O'Neill (Jan. 7, 1994)
2. Also Reviewed This Week: Muriel Spark's "Aiding and
Abetting"
=======================================================
Getting Away With Murder
Muriel Spark's latest novel pursues the story of the disappearance of the Earl of Lucan after the family nanny is slain.
AIDING AND ABETTING
This is Muriel Spark's 21st work of fiction, and according
to reviewer Richard Eder, it "seems roughly at midrange. If
the energy of her game has weakened, Spark compensates with
a kind of auxiliary generator. She uses history: a
celebrated British scandal of a quarter-century ago. Lord
Lucan, a dissolute earl, broke into his own house one night
in 1974, posing as a burglar, and bludgeoned his children's
nanny to death. Like the charge of the Light Brigade, in
which an earlier Lord Lucan was involved, this was a
blunder. He had mistaken the young woman for his wife."
By Muriel Spark.
166 pp. New York:
Doubleday. $21.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/01/03/11/reviews/010311.11ederlt.html?0309bk
Related Links
Featured Author: Muriel Spark
This retrospective includes New York Times reviews of
Spark's previous books, including "The Prime of Miss Jean
Brodie" (1962), "The Abbess of Crewe" (1974) and others, as
well as interviews with the author and articles written by
Spark for the Book Review and Travel sections.
First Chapter: 'Aiding and Abetting'
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The Patron Saint of Greenies
Two new books take very different approaches to Francis of Assisi.
SALVATION
"Salvation: Scenes From the Life of St. Francis," by Valerie Martin
Scenes From the Life of St. Francis.
By Valerie Martin.
268 pp. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf. $24.
Also reviewed in this article: Francis of Assisi," by Adrian House
In his review of two books about St. Francis, historian
Geoffrey Moorhouse writes that "The appeal of Francis is, of
course, a form of paradox. He was the rich and dissolute man
who abandoned his wealth and pleasures and deliberately
embraced ascetic poverty in pursuit of an ideal." Though "he
was not by any means unique in this," Moorhouse writes,
"What sets Francis apart from the rest is more elusive than
simple renunciation followed by a life of hardship. And, in
their own ways, both Valerie Martin and Adrian House have
managed to illuminate that distinction."
More on Valerie Martin
Links to reviews of Martin's previous books, including "Mary
Reilly" (1990) are available on nytimes.com.
"Francis of Assisi," by Adrian House
FRANCIS OF ASSISI
By Adrian House.
Illustrated. 336 pp. Mahwah, N.J.:
HiddenSpring/Paulist Press. $28.
-----
"Seabiscuit: An American Legend," by Laura Hillenbrand
Six decades ago the racehorse Seabiscuit attained stardom as
the world's most popular news personality and vanquished his
rival, War Admiral, a Triple Crown winner, in what was
arguably the greatest horse race in American history. Today,
writes reviewer Jim Squires, former editor of The Chicago
Tribune and a commercial breeder of thoroughbred racehorses,
"the old Biscuit's luck is still holding. His history has
been meticulously researched by Laura Hillenbrand, whose
racing journalism for a dozen years has won much-deserved
awards."
Squires writes that "Seabiscuit" is "a captivating story. If
plans to make a film of the story work out, and if the film
is as good as the book, the horse's name may once again be
known to almost everyone."
3. Audio Reading: Allegra Goodman
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Looking for Love
Abandoned in Hawaii, the heroine of Allegra Goodman's novel embarks on a spiritual quest.
"Paradise Park," by Allegra Goodman, is reviewed this week.
PARADISE PARK
Sharon Spiegelman, the heroine-narrator of Allegra Goodman's
second novel (after the acclaimed "Kaaterskill Falls"), is
"on a lifelong tear through the world in search of God,"
writes reviewer Jennifer Schuessler. "Abandoned in a fleabag
hotel in Waikiki sometime in the mid-1970's by her
folk-dancing partner, with little more than a macrame bikini
to her name, she throws herself into a chaotic,
all-consuming quest for human and divine love (though 'just
because you are on an odyssey, is there something wrong with
once in a while having a hot meal?' she wonders)."
By Allegra Goodman.
360 pp. New York:
The Dial Press. $24.95.
Related Link
Audio Reading: Allegra Goodman Reads From 'Paradise Park'
In an audio reading recorded exclusively for nytimes.com on
March 5, Allegra Goodman reads from "Paradise Park." In the
selection, Goodman's narrator sets the stage: "The guy,
supposedly my boyfriend, who came out with me to this joint,
a fleabag in Waikiki, was now gone, run off with a chick on
her way to Fiji."
First Chapter: 'Paradise Park'
4. New in Stores: Martha Tod Dudman's "Augusta, Gone"
===========================================================
"Augusta, Gone: A True Story," by Martha Tod Dudman -- March
In her review of Martha Tod Dudman's memoir, New York Times
critic Janet Maslin called the book "a wrenching
mother's-eye view of the kind of family crisis seen . . . in
countless households where teenagers find chemical means of
amplifying the rebelliousness they already feel."
5. In the News: Beyond Hypertext: Novels With Interactive Animation
========================================================
Erik Loyer is publishing his novella "Chroma" on the
Internet, where it will unfold in 16 installments. It is not
a basic e-book, but rather readers participate in the
telling of the tale by entering an interactive world of
animated images.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/05/arts/05ARTS.html?0309bk
For a digest of this week's book news, visit:
http://www.nytimes.com/books/yr/mo/day/daily/index.html?0309bk
6. New on the Best-Seller List
==============================
Hardcover Fiction
#7) "The Vendetta Defense," by Lisa Scottoline
A Philadelphia lawyer finds herself defending Anthony
(Pigeon Tony) Lucia, a mobster accused of murdering his
lifelong enemy.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/yr/mo/day/bsp/index.html?0309bk
A note on our best-seller policy: The Times on the Web
publishes the New York Times best-seller lists a week in
advance of the printed Sunday Book Review. The best-seller
lists published this week on the Web will appear in the
print edition dated March 18 and are based on sales through
last weekend.
7. In the Forums: Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America"
========================================================
Several participants in the Reading Group have expressed
surprise at the critical tone of Alexis de Tocqueville's
"Democracy in America." As one reader put it, "Over and
over, what I see here is a not-too-complimentary view of the
young country. It makes me continue to wonder at the way
this book has been enshrined and at times worshipped."
The group has also been analyzing Tocqueville's method. One
reader says that Tocqueville is working from a Hegelian
"historicist approach. His emphasis on the inevitability of
democracy was an indication of this. He believes, though,
that the inevitable can still be influenced through the
efforts of man."
In a landslide vote, readers have chosen Michael Ondaatje's
latest novel, "Anil's Ghost," as the Reading Group's April
book.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/forums/index.html?0309bk
ALSO REVIEWED THIS WEEK
'The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature'
Amy Wilentz's 'Martyrs' Crossing'
G. Edward White's 'The Constitution and the New Deal'
Tara Parker-Pope's 'Cigarettes: Anatomy of an Industry From Seed to Smoke'
Anthony Giardina's 'Recent History'
THE CLOSE READER
Judith Shulevitz on The New Puritan Ethic
