Massively subtitled The Challenge * The Fighting * The Legacy—A Commemorative Photo History of the Gulf War, this handsome volume also bears imposing credits: Edited by two ex—Time Inc. managing editors, Ray Cave and Pat Ryan; foreword by Gen. Colin L. Powell; text by Peter David, international editor of the Economist, and other esteemed journalists; and "Contributions by the World's Best Photojournalists and Artists of the U.S. Armed Forces."
Powell's salute to all who played a part in this "mighty success for the cause of freedom in the world" is brief, but the journalists provide wide-ranging chapters. Two are by David, on the war's history and on its consequences. Gregory Jaynes describes the air war, John Fialka the tank battles, Michael Kelly the rape of Kuwait City, Colin Smith the Iraqi retreat. C.D.B. Bryan supplies an engaging profile of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf.
The book's extraordinary impact is generated mostly by its almost 200 photographs: poignant studies of the women who ferried supplies, serviced the tanks and nursed the wounded; the agonized grimace of a sergeant next to a buddy killed by friendly fire; camels silhouetted against burning oil wells; a road strewn with corpses and demolished vehicles; a blissful Melissa Rathbun Nealy, for 32 days a POW, being hugged by the shyly grinning Schwarzkopf.
The gulf war, says David in summary, was not one "from which a harmonious 'new world order,' or even a peaceful Middle East, automatically springs. The tragedy in Kurdistan put paid to that illusion. It was, however, a necessary war, which righted an obvious wrong and stopped a bloodthirsty tyrant in his tracks. That is reason enough for pride."
Some readers, pride notwithstanding, may be put off by the book's gung ho tone. President Bush is never faulted; the State Department's prewar misreadings of Saddam Hussein's intent are rationalized; there are only fleeting references to controversies over whether to blockade or invade, over the bombing of possibly nonmilitary targets, over the Pentagon's restriction of media coverage.
But Triumph in the Desert, with half its profits going to the American Red Cross Gulf Crisis Fund, can't be judged as dispassionate history. The book is a fund-raiser, morale builder, ultimate souvenir program. As such, like the war itself, it is a stunning success. (Random House, $25.00)
by Raymond Kennedy
And you thought Kafka's Gregor Samsa woke up one morning metamorphosed. He's got nothing on Mrs. Frankie Fitzgerald, heroine of Kennedy's wonderful comic novel.
A gentle 45-year-old widow and loan officer at a small-town bank in Massachusetts, Frankie finds herself suddenly possessed of articulateness, aggression and a heightened carnality.
First she seduces a dashing teenage drum major. Then she begins cruelly and inexorably climbing over her superiors at the bank until, in a dazzling coup, she is appointed the institution's chief executive officer.
It's a remarkable rise considering, as one of her competitors fairly complains to a local paper, "She has no background in banking. No schooling in it. No true experience. She's just a woman shooting off her mouth—appealing to a vulgar streak in your readers. She's a home loan officer."
Inflamed with power, Frankie turns into a demagogue, sacking employees, imagining grudges and surrounding herself with pump-licking lackeys. Just before wigging out completely, she threatens to have people executed.
It's a measure of Kennedy's skill that he makes Frankie's outlandish adventures so plausible and enjoyable, spinning them into a ribald, risible and riveting read. (Ticknor & Fields, $21.95)
by Amy Tan
In her second novel, Tan returns to territory familiar to readers of her first: The Joy Luck Club. Like that book, this one explores the relationship between an assimilated Chinese-American daughter and her less Americanized Chinese-born mother. Yet despite its opening passages, this sure-handed, funny, wise work is more the mother's story than the daughter's.
Winnie Louie has seemed a proper wife—now widow—of San Francisco reverend Jimmie Louie. Mother of two grown children, Winnie rules her family with love, superstition and demand. But a relative's death brings the extended family together and lets Winnie recall secrets she has kept hidden since her youth in China, secrets that inevitably bind her closer to headstrong daughter Pearl. The bulk of this book is Winnie's rambling yet insightful recounting of that early life.
Tan writes seamlessly, articulating the mix of cultures. Having lived in America for 40-odd years, Winnie can explain that "getting married in those days was like buying real estate. Here you see a house you want to live in, you find a real estate agent. Back in China, you saw a rich family with a daughter, you found a go-between who knew how to make a good business deal."
But assimilated as she is, certain Westernisms still escape her: She remembers finding a "dirty book" in Pearl's room; it was called "Catche Her in the Ride." And then there's the well-known American expression, "Eat, Drink and Be Married."
Yet if Tan sees the humor in Winnie's experience, her novel is hardly light. Despite the book's problems—the setup for Winnie's revelations is forced—Tan has again written a moving story about family, obligation and love. (Putnam, $21.95)
by Harold Robbins
To those who never appreciated Robbins's work, his 20th novel will seem like—ho hum—the same old pulp.
But to readers for whom Robbins's early books—A Stone for Danny Fisher, The Carpetbaggers, The Betsy—were staples—the genteel pornography of their adolescence—The Piranhas will be as disappointing as a tasteless hamburger. The story is unbelievable (and very similar to Godfather III), the characters cardboard even for Robbins, the writing abominable. There's not even any good sex.
Jed Stevens—né di Stefano—is a mafioso's nephew. A business school grad, he wants nothing to do with his Uncle Rocco's line of work. But while it hardly takes an M.B.A. to see that a trip down the Amazon with Rocco's son Angelo will entail drug smuggling, Jed goes. When Angelo dies—after a swim in piranha-infested waters—Jed becomes Rocco's surrogate son, tied by honor to the family business.
The rest of the plot is a mess of warring Mafia families, extortion and murder. Robbins seems to be trying to show that the Peruvian Army, the Cosa Nostra and legitimate business are tied together, perhaps through one tantalizing Permvian hooker. Half the time you can't figure out who's who—or who's on which side. After a while, you don't care much one way or the other. (Simon & Schuster, $21.95)
>G IS FOR GUMSHOE KINSEY MILLHONE, Sue Grafton's SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA-BASED FEMALE SLEUTH, seeks a missing old lady while trying to avoid a paid assassin. (Fawcett)
DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS Easy Rawlins, a black Army vet reluctantly turned detective, debuts in Walter Mosley's jazzy, Chandler-esque plot that centers on a nervy, beautiful ingenue. (Pocket)
BLOSSOM Only the title is flowery as Andrew Vachss's brutal antihero Burke turns up to introduce justice to a sex-obsessed sniper with a thing for teenagers. (Ivy)
- Contributors:
- Jeff Brown,
- David Hiltbrand,
- Sara Nelson.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
