If only this collection of essays were as simple to classify as a genus of plants. The title is the first inkling of the idiosyncratic style of the Antigua-born author, who stakes her Garden prose with parentheses the way she might prop up a row of French Marmande tomatoes. In this case, happily, the yield is no less luscious. Although the book kicks off with a listless piece about wisteria (what was that all about?), persistent readers will be rewarded with smart-mouth observations on useless horticultural tools (she calls a trap for garden varmints a "ridiculous panty-waist contraption") and highhanded seed sellers. Sprinkled among these observations are intriguing autobiographical tidbits about Kincaid. The author only hints at what life is like for this particular black woman living in the mostly white state of Vermont. Nor does she even say precisely what her garden grows. But it sounds as if, Noah-like, she has planted a botanical zoo. (Farrar Straus Giroux, $23.)
Bottom Line: Green thumbs up
by Gaby Hauptmann
Was there ever a time when all that men wanted was sex and all that women wanted was a little innocent cuddling? Hard to believe, but German author Gaby Hauptmann seems to think this is a universal, contemporary theme of such urgency that it should fill an entire novel.
Fed up with sex-obsessed men, the gorgeous 35-year-old Carmen Legg decides to take out a personal ad for an impotent lover, then embarks upon date after date with candidates who invariably fall in love with her—despite her abysmal taste in fashion. But when Carmen finally finds a keeper, she changes her mind—surprise!—about being "oppressed by an erect penis." Of course, Carmen's feminine wiles and a silly plot twist conspire to get the member in question up and running. Too bad the same can't be said for this dumb and tedious import. (Ecco, $24)
Bottom Line: A flaccid book about a woman in search of sexless love
Off Camera
by Maria Cooper Janis
This intimate photo collection by the screen legend's daughter portrays the actor as far different from the laconic defender of virtue he mastered onscreen. Gary Cooper the bon viveur partied all night with the likes of Clark Gable and Audrey Hepburn, discussed art with friend Pablo Picasso and fraternized with royalty and the Pope. Janis's text and anecdotes, such as Cooper's riding a horse while suffering from an undiagnosed broken hip, enhance his stoic image yet also convey the warmth and affection the Montana-born ex-cowhand showed his family.
The Coopers' outdoor activities included not only cycling, riding, surfing and skiing but lots of game hunting. And while evoking her adoration for her dad, Janis acknowledges that Cooper, who died in 1961, was quite the ladies' man. He left his wife, Veronica, during his 1940s affair with Patricia Neal, although he eventually returned.
But did he ever correct another major miscalculation? After seeing a preview of Gone with the Wind in 1939, he predicted that the film was going to be "the biggest flop in Hollywood history." (Abrams, $35)
Bottom Line: A complex hero riding high
by Willie Morris
Book of the week
When the masterful Mississippi author of this slim volume died last summer at age 64 in Jackson, he left behind a body of work that includes the 1960s classic North Toward Home (a Southerner's tale of literary life amid Yankees). Who knows if it will confer immortality on Morris? Certainly this book, his penultimate effort, succeeds in immortalizing an everyday domestic feline named Spit McGee. It is surely one of the most engaging cat books ever written. With lithe artistry and heaps of humorous Dixie detail, Morris chronicles his conversion from die-hard "dog man" (a 1995 ode to his boyhood mutt, My Dog Skip, is now a movie) to a blubbering middle-aged mass of affection seduced by a newborn kitten with one blue eye and one yellow eye. Had Morris not fallen for future wife JoAnne (whom he affectionately calls the "Cat Woman"), and had she not owned the mama cat that gave birth to Spit, the world would have missed out on this astonishing love story. (Random House, $18.95)
Bottom Line: Pounce on it
>GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING Tracy Chevalier The painting of the same title by Vermeer, one of his most famous, provides the inspiration for a beguiling novel that purports to tell the girl's story. (Dutton, $21.95)
BLOOD MONEY Thomas Perry The Edgar Award-winning author has his Native American heroine Jane Whitefield trying to steal from the Mafia in order to give to the poor. (Random House, $24.95)
- Contributors:
- David Cobb Craig,
- Laura Jamison,
- Ed Karam.
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!
