Book of the week
Luckily for Frank McCourt, life got better after he left the blighted lanes of Limerick at age 19 and headed for New York City. Luckily for fans of Angela's Ashes, his 1997 Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, McCourt's genius for observation survived the trip. Resuming where his No. 1 bestselling remembrance of an Irish boyhood concludes, 'Tis follows McCourt from his first American job—emptying ashtrays at the Biltmore Hotel—through his years on Manhattan's loading docks, his stint in the Army, his days at New York University and his entry into the profession he practiced for 30 years: teaching high school English. Moving from near-starvation in childhood to grown-up literary renown is an astonishing trajectory; McCourt recalls it with wry humility. When his first students, at a vocational high school, declare the book Giants in the Earth irrelevant ("all these Europe people all gloomy on the prairie"), McCourt digs up autobiographical papers by students from years past to engage his class. "Without the crumbling compositions," he writes, "I might have had to teach." As he has proved once again, telling your own story well can do just that. (Scribner, $26)
Bottom Line: 'Tis as fine as its predecessor
An Autobiography
by Meat Loaf, with David Dalton
Meat Loaf has mounted a sporadically successful recording career via such records as "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" and has acted in the movies (The Rocky Horror Picture Show). But he has done it all with little grace. Soon after his 1977 album Bat out of Hell became a hit, he all but fell apart. "I was... pretty far gone," he writes. "Too much touring, too many drugs...."
Nor is Meat always generous toward those who helped him. Even Jim Steinman, his longtime songwriter, is portrayed as an envious individual. And in discussing his own problems, Meat writes, "The entire record business had a straw up its nose, and a mirror on the table.... And one thing a coke fiend can't do is wait."
At least Meat pummels himself too. But a good autobiography should be revealing, humorously self-aware and should avoid blaming others. Meat Loaf does have a sense of humor. But one out of three don't cut it. ReganBooks, $24.95)
Bottom Line: Rancid Meat
by Jane Shapiro
What would you do if, after the nuptials, you discovered your beloved was such a klutz that your life was—quite literally—at stake? For the unnamed narrator of Jane Shapiro's witty second novel, the answer comes into focus slowly, much like the photos she shoots, first lovingly, then obsessively, to document their marriage. As she watches him do in their three pets and as she herself sustains injury after injury at the hands of the man she calls "genuinely well-intentioned but finally lethal," she comes to the reluctant conclusion that there is only one recourse: She must kill him.
Like many recent novels (Laura Zigman's Animal Husbandry and Lisa Zeidner's Layover come to mind), this one never strays from its central plotline. Though Shapiro's observations about relationships are priceless, the dramatic tension often sags, and the one-note focus becomes monotonous. (Little, Brown, $22.95)
Bottom Line: Sparkling writing doesn't quite mask a thin story
The Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall
by Misty Bernall
When one of Cassie Bernall's classmates at Columbine High School put a gun to her head and asked if she believed in God, the 17-year-old junior answered, "Yes." That response cost Cassie her life and turned her into a symbol of goodness in the face of twisted teen despair. The surprise of this sparse, heartbreaking book by Cassie's mother (proceeds go to charity) is that the most celebrated victim of the April 20 massacre in Littleton, Colo., was hardly a saint—in fact, she was once nearly as troubled as her killers.
A rage-filled rebel who dabbled in drugs, drinking, witchcraft and self-mutilation, young Cassie fantasized about killing a teacher, her parents and even herself. The story of how her mother, Misty, and father, Brad, fought to save their daughter—they essentially imposed martial law and helped lead her toward a spiritual awakening two years ago—is far more complicated and enlightening than the tidy martyrdom imposed on Cassie after her death. "Things have changed so much since they were teenagers," she wrote of her folks in one letter. "They have no idea, the things I face." She Said Yes is a stirring, important look into the tribulations of one all-too-human teen. (Plough, $17)
Bottom Line: Poignant wake-up call to parents
>HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN J.K. Rowling Gadzooks! Wiz-kid Harry is homeless, hunted and in an all-round heck of a mess in the latest installment of his adventures. (Scholastic, $19.95)
COLLECTORS Paul Griner This spellbinding novel chronicles the menacing mating ritual between edgy ad-exec Jean and a man whose intentions are not always that clear. (Random House, $19.95)
EDDIE'S BASTARD William Kowalski
Writing in the first person, the 28-year-old author gives his first novel—the story of an old man raising a grandson—an appealing Dickensian flavor. (HarperCollins, $24)
- Contributors:
- Kim Hubbard,
- Ralph Novak,
- Jill Smolowe,
- Alex Tresniowski.
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!
