As end-of-summer escapist reading, Peter Nichols's account of his solo attempt to cross the Atlantic in a 27-foot, engineless wooden sailboat provides plenty of thrills for the armchair traveler—among them, gale-force storms and a desperate race to patch a leaky hull. But this is much more than a salty sea tale. Through captivating flashbacks, we also-follow the up-and-down course of the author's recent, ill-fated marriage to a smart and feisty woman he calls J. For five years they lived as yacht bums in ports from Monaco to St. Thomas, scrounging jobs and living much of the time aboard Toad, a tubby but surprisingly seaworthy craft stocked with his favorite sea books, such as the naturalist Charles Darwin's classic journal of his voyage on the Beagle.
Gradually the two journeys—marital and maritime—merge in a finely wrought, achingly honest blend of storytelling, log notes and entries from J.'s diaries—which she left aboard following their split. Nichols may struggle to keep both Toad and his marriage afloat, but his meticulous, understated prose never strains in showing us how heartbreak can also hone the adventurous spirit. (Viking, $23.95)
by J.C. Herz
If Citizen Kane took place in the 21st century," the author writes, "Orson Welles would be sighing 'Mario!' instead of 'Rosebud.' " According to Herz, author of 1995's Surfing on the Internet, that's how deeply video games tap into our basic instincts and how much they've become part of our collective psyche. In this witty, high-wired treatise, Herz chronicles the evolution of electronic games from the '60s pre-Pong era up to the newest generation, last year's Nintendo 64. She defines genres and their appeal: The shoot-'em-up Doom is all about primal terror and survival; the classic puzzler Tetris is about making order out of chaos. Herz's analysis isn't deep, but it's often right on (Pac-Man may be "a Paramecium with only two behaviors—engorge or flee, but at least he gave the player something to identify with...a face"). And there are great factoids, such as how Nintendo uses robots to load software at its distribution center because they don't steal. Herz can be too much of a fan, even as she describes how the video games "pander to the essential gross-ness of teenage boys" with their violence, gore and bimbos galore. But the book is fun—even if it doesn't compare to a game of Donkey Kong. (Little, Brown, $23.95)
by Jack Higgins
An American President with a skeleton in his closet is embroiled in nuclear blackmail when his secret (and illegitimate) daughter is kidnapped and held hostage by the Maccabees, an Israeli commando group with a modest demand: that the United States annihilate Iran, Iraq and Syria. The predicament offers a splendid occasion for the return engagement of a Higgins regular, one Sean Dillon, a roguish ex-IRA and ex-PLO mercenary who guides matters to their expected bang-up conclusion. Belfast native Higgins, a veteran novelist (The Eagle Has Landed), has enjoyed a life as adventurous as some of his characters. With plenty of old-fashioned intrigue, thrilling chase scenes and moral tough guys just on the edge of respectability, his latest book packs in the action and leaves sentiment behind. (Putnam, $24.95)
by Thomas Lynch
What is it with Michigan and death? First came Dr. Kevorkian; now there's Thomas Lynch, a Milford, Mich., funeral director and (in his words) "internationally unknown" poet who has filled this small book with big thoughts on the duties of those other men in black everyone is dying to see. A sort of mortuary Mort Sahl, Lynch keeps this memoir lively with passing fancies, alternately sad and sadly funny, on his encounters with death—such as the embalming of his own undertaker dad (who, Lynch writes, suffered several heart attacks and "survived all but one") and a wake cut short by the postmortem flatulence of its guest of honor. All of the tales are as morbidly fascinating as the sheet-covered form lying next to the wreck on the highway; The Undertaking is to die for. (Norton, $23)
by Joyce Carol Oates
Ingrid Boone, the 21-year-old narrator of Joyce Carol Oates's 27th novel, is the scarred child of willful and careless parents: a father on the lam for murder and a mother whose beauty and neediness guarantee that there will always be a man around the house. Both loved and abandoned, Ingrid uses her burgeoning sexuality to find friends and acceptance but instead self-destructs, becoming the slave of a satanic biker-cult leader in Upstate New York. "It wasn't my life but a life that seemed to be happening, like weather," Ingrid says of her ordeal.
For Oates, the ability to portray chillingly and accurately the physical and emotional horror visited upon vulnerable souls—chiefly women, children and animals—is by now a well-honed art; no one does it better. In Man Crazy, the story hurtles forward breathlessly, the prose is mesmerizing and powerful, but finally the reader is numbed. You can twist uncomfortably at Ingrid Boone's tale of abuse and redemption, but it won't touch your heart. (Dutton, $23.95)
by Denene Millner
The latest entry in the "how-to-get-a-man" sweeps is this often hilarious guide, subtitled Secrets for Meeting, Getting, and Keeping a Good Black Man. Much like (but definitely not interchangeable with) The Rules, last year's controversial must-have for the SWF set, this one offers a money-back guarantee to readers trying to land Brother Mr. Right.
The fail-safe formula engineered by Eve to keep Adam—"You're the man, honey, you're bigger than God" or "Here, have an apple"—hasn't been improved upon, but Millner, recently wed to a Brother Mr. Right, has modified it. Feeding and flattering are still core strategies, but young sistahs are urged to be aggressive: "Waiting three days to return a brother's phone call will get a sistah nothing more than a warm spot on the couch by herself with a bag of chips and the remote."
Millner's choice advice is mainly commonsensical—you'll recognize everything your mama told you. But if not satisfied, you can always return the book and dump the man. (Quill, paper, $9.95)
by Robin White
This murder mystery may be set in the Siberian tundra and taiga, but it's a jungle out there. White's fifth thriller takes us to the farthest reaches of the post-Soviet-era outland, a lawless world of thieves and dirty deals where only the corrupt and cunning survive. So when a well-connected local businessman is savagely murdered along with two neighborhood militiamen, Gregori Nowek, the idealistic mayor of Markovo (whose campaign slogan was, "Be honest: can I do any worse?"), throws himself into the investigation. Was it the local mafiya? Partners in an American-Russian joint venture to whom the dead man had ties? Or his ex-mistress, the beautiful scientist Anna Vereskaya?
White employs every plot device and stock character in the genre. There's the requisite evil apparatchik and his henchmen, a sadistic pilot who has a way with a knife; love blooms between the prime suspect and the mayor (who must also contend with a runaway teenage daughter in peril); the author even works in endangered tigers, lunar-surface vehicles and the Internet. The narrative is brisk, and the prose is appropriately hard-boiled ("Those dreams...lay shattered like the vodka bottles around the base of the oil monument"), but the sex and violence—usually conjoined—are gratuitous and offensive. Even the good guy's pet (a calico cat) devours the villain's mascot (a ferret) in the end. Still, Light manages to be a decent thriller despite the overkill. (Delacorte, $23.95)
by Mary Walton
Ford Motor Company, maker of the Taurus, one of the greatest American automobile success stories, faced a daunting challenge in the early 1990s: The Dearborn, Mich.-based manufacturing giant needed to redesign and freshen its bestselling product without losing the elusive appeal that had made it the most popular car in the United States. In scope the Taurus project, code-named DN101, was not unlike a space mission. It involved a huge financial investment and required thousands of people and machines to mesh for a common purpose: inspiring more consumers to choose the 1996 Taurus over its main competition—the Honda Accord or Toyota Camry. The buyers didn't bite, entirely; the new Taurus lagged behind Camry and never zoomed like the old.
Walton, a former Philadelphia Inquirer reporter who was granted unprecedented access to the inner workings of Ford, presents an objective account of the inevitable design problems, construction snafus and infighting. Fascinating without being overly technical, Car describes how the rides of our dreams are really assembled. (Norton, $26.95)
by Susie Moloney
Page-Turner of the Week
FOUR YEARS INTO A DROUGHT THAT'S choking the life out of Goodlands, N.Dak., crop failures and foreclosures are joined by more sinister calamities. The latest, a series of fires, has neighbors looking askance at one another—when a tall, dark stranger shows up on the porch of banker Karen Grange.
Thompson Keatley is his name, and, as only Karen knows, rainmaking's his game. But before the handsome drifter can work his magic on Goodlands—and maybe on his lonely hostess too—he'll have to get to the bottom of the malevolent presence haunting the town, while outfoxing the suspicious and increasingly desperate residents.
Moloney gets her story of horror in the heartland off to a spellbinding start, but toward the end falls back on stock shock. Blame the devil, or else her movie deal; on the basis of the outline, prologue and three chapters, Tom Cruise bought the rights for around $750,000. Rain Man II, anyone? (Delacorte, $23.95)
>HOME REMEDIES ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE GURU DR. ANDREW Weil hopes his series of paperbacks will make regular house calls at readers' homes this fall. The six titles, which Ivy Books will publish over the next three months (à la Stephen King's The Green Mile series), tackle issues from Women's Health (October) to Natural Remedies (November). "It will reach a mass audience that may not have had access to this kind of information in the past," says Weil, 55, author of Spontaneous Healing and 8 Weeks to Optimum Health. And at $2.99 each, the books are certainly cheaper than making an appointment.
LOVE, VIDEO-STYLE IN THE EARLY '70S AUTHOR ERICH Segal's legendary weepfest Love Story dampened moviegoers' hankies all over the country. Now Segal's upcoming novel Only Love (Putnam) will be misting the CBS eye as a four-hour miniseries. The story, which Segal, 60, says is based on "a very personal experience," focuses on two former lovers who are reunited after 20 years. Will they rediscover what it means never to have to say they're sorry?
GO ASK ALICE BESTSELLING NOVELIST ALICE HOFFMAN must be relieved to learn that Sandra Bullock will definitely be starring in and Griffin Dunne (Addicted to Love) directing the Warner Bros, film of her 1995 novel Practical Magic (Putnam). Agent Ron Bernstein has sold movie rights to 4 of Hoffman's books in the past 10 years, but this is the first one to begin filming. Spellcasting starts January.
- Contributors:
- Ron Arias,
- Pam Lambert,
- Lan N. Nguyen,
- Paula Chin,
- Louisa Ermelino,
- Kyle Smith,
- Nick Charles,
- Steven Cook.
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!
