Many personal histories that tell stories of survival are pigeonholed with the sentimental moniker "a celebration of life." But when the writer is the irascible, sharp-tongued New York City newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin, the result is something more complex, more idiosyncratic and more surprising. Breslin offers graphic and sometimes farcical details of the events that followed after he was diagnosed with a potentially lethal brain aneurysm in 1994. Now recovered, Breslin uses his near-death experience to explore his past.
Befitting a reporter famous for finding the fresh angle on every story (at President Kennedy's funeral he interviewed the grave digger), Breslin's memoir is quirkily anecdotal. Little is said about the famous paths he crossed while working for the Daily News and later for Newsday; instead, Breslin ponders the roles played by chance and Divinity in shaping a life. His marriage to Rosemary Dattolico, for instance, elicits a stirring passage. Breslin met Dattolico, with whom he has six children, in a bar in Queens after the car she was riding in had broken down out front. Dattolico was on her way home from a wedding, where she had caught the bouquet; flirting, she threw it to Breslin and asked him to marry her before running into the rainy night.
Breslin is not an easy writer; there's something unpolished about his prose that forces the reader to work hard for emotional payoffs. He weaves back and forth from the past to the present, which adds to the book's disjointed quality. But Remembering Me is the self-portrait of a man both grandiose and humble, somebody gentle, joyful and loud. In other words, a memorable guy. (Little, Brown, $22.95)
by Kenneth C. Davis
So secure is Kenneth Davis's faith in our ignorance that he has copyrighted the phrase "Don't know much about" and made it the animating concept of this and two previous books. His Civil War is not for scholars or buffs, but for readers who would simply rather know something than nothing. Though the book lacks the visual and verbal poetry of Ken Burns's celebrated PBS series, Davis provides a lively, accessible survey of the events and personalities that shaped the great second act of our national history. Along the way, he delights in sharing facts that cut against the grain of pop wisdom: that the Emancipation Proclamation didn't really emancipate anybody, since it freed slaves only in states under Confederate rule, and that, because of deplorable sanitary conditions, more soldiers died of diarrhea than in combat. Of course, this is History Lite—Shiloh and Antie-tam are disposed of in something like five pages each—but it is by no means History Dumb. (Morrow, $25)
by Jock Carroll
Marilyn Monroe was perceived as just another dumb movie blonde in 1952 (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes launched her toward stardom the following year), which may explain how Carroll, a Canadian photographer, had such easy access to her on the set of Niagara. Carroll's ponderous introduction to this alluring volume of 60 black-and-white images offers little insight into Monroe at age 26, though he does allow that a phone call from her not-quite-secret beau Joe DiMaggio could make her cry.
What endures is Monroe's innate power to take command of the lens, even when (as in some of these shots) she could have used a manicure and a strong cup of coffee. So here is Marilyn, solo, circled by her fans, even nude (though blanketed) in her hotel bed, forever in possession of that luminous look. Carroll's heirs—the photographer died in 1995—claim that most of these photos were only recently discovered. Naive as that may sound, the spirit seems right: MM's image, at this early stage in her life, embodied a time when even sex seemed innocent. (Friedman/Fairfax, $25)
by James Patterson
Washington is in a panic. In tony Georgetown, a senator, a TV newswoman and a visiting film star have all been murdered in their beds by a mysterious duo. "Jack and Jill, came to The Hill, to kill, to kill, to kill" their notes taunt investigators. Meanwhile, another serial killer is preying on black children. Is there a connection?
Fortunately—for both D.C. and the reader—Patterson has brought back homicide detective Alex Cross to find the answer. The hero of Patterson's previous bestsellers, Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls (currently being filmed with Morgan Freeman in the lead), Cross is known for his obsessive investigations and his ability to get inside the minds of the most deranged killers. He's also the kind of multilayered character that makes any plot twist—and there are plenty—seem believable. From the book's opening murder to its haunting cliff-hanger ending, Patterson has created a dark and scary thrill ride that keeps your heart pounding and your eyes glued to the pages. (Little, Brown, $24.95)
by Michael Moore
who's also "easy on the eyes."
Ever the social scientist, Moore has some pithy advice for those who would like to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the L.A. riots next April: "This time, for the love of God, don't burn your own neighborhood!...I say, if you are upset at The Man, go to where The Man is. This time, burn down Beverly Hills!"
author, it wouldn't be worth finishing. While Moore's heart is usually
in the right place, his pen often strays into territory that's obvious or puerile. (Crown, $21)
by Robert Barnard
Page-Turner of the Week
THERE'S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO fleece an old goat. In fact, merry widows Maria Halliwell and Marcia Catch-pole, two of the femmes fatales in this deliciously malicious short story collection, demonstrate quite a dizzying array. Of course, every now and then the intended prey proves to be a wolf—and then the game gets really interesting.
Transforming seeming patsies into predators, and innocents into murderers, are but two of the tricks Barnard—a veteran British mystery writer celebrated for his devious plotting and devilish humor—shows off in these 17 inventive stories. His varied narrators range from the dissolute Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in "Balmorality" to the apparently unpedigreed canine who offers his account of a murder in "Dog Television," with a surprising appearance by Jane Eyre in "Reader, I Strangled Him." But regardless of the trappings, there's one thing you can count on: Just when you think you've figured out what Barnard is up to, he'll outfox you again. (Scribner, $21)
>Jimmy Breslin
HARD-BOILED AND HEAVEN
"It ain't bad to be alive," says syndicated columnist Jimmy Breslin, 66, who came close to experiencing the alternative. After suffering bouts of double vision in October 1994, he learned that an aneurysm—a ballooning artery threatening to burst—was lodged in his brain. Now fully recovered following surgery at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, the Queens-born, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, who has covered cops, killers and city scandals, reflects on the life he nearly left behind.
When did you decide to write a book about your experiences?
When I woke up in a hospital bed after my operation. What else do you write about but what you know? At that stage in my colorful life, I had just had the top of my head taken off, so I figured I was familiar enough with the subject to write about it.
What is the book's message?
That I have been lucky in life and lucky in love. I also wanted to bring out the subject of religion, which is something people are often reticent about in public. Religion got me through this whole experience. I was waiting for the moment when I would be unable to hold myself together, but it never came. The night before my operation, I was as calm as a lake.
Did you find you had regrets?
I wasted too much time when I should have been working. There were days that I spent drinking in saloons. Of course, there were a couple of fine ideas that came out of that. Now I try to write every day for six hours. Even if I can't write anything, I make myself sit there, like a kid kept after school.
[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]
>KING VS. KING: THE MASTER COMPETES WITH HIS YOUNGER SELF
How does Stephen King's newest novel stack up against the just-published manuscript he wrote under his pseudonym Richard Bachman? Comparisons:
TITLE The Regulators ($24.95) Desperation ($27.95)
AUTHOR Richard Bachman Stephen King
PAGES 474 pages (slender by King standards) 690 pages (still underfed for a King opus)
PREMISE Murderous, mysterious creatures dressed as characters from a kids' cartoon attack a small Ohio town A 300-pound cop presides over the speed trap from hell outside a Nevada desert town.
MAIN CHARACTERS A cluster of terrified citizens, plus a possessed little boy Many of the same characters, apparently unaware that they surfaced in the other story
CELEBRITY NAMES DROPPED Ethan Hawke, Newt Gingrich, James Dickey Bonnie Raitt, the Grateful Dead, Norman Mailer, James Dickey again
DUMBEST QUOTE "The boy...is maybe six and is...already on his way to being a first-class boogersnot." "Dear me," he said, "I've lost the respect of a man once in charge of throwing out Steve Tyler's barf-bags."
BEST TIME/PLACE TO READ IT NOT before bed, unless you're courting nightmares. But do find time. NOT before a motor trip, but no need to rush; it's a routine King monster mash.
>Anne Rice
PLACE: Oklahoma City BOOK: Servant of the Bones COPIES SIGNED: 1,500 in seven hours
THESE WERE NOT JUST FANS, THESE were people who should be checked for fang marks. A throng of 1,160 utterly transfixed devotees filed through Bollinger's Books and Espresso Cafe to meet Rice, Queen of the Occult, High Priestess of Horror, Registered Democrat (she wore a Clinton/Gore button along with her gold lamé cloak and chain mail headdress).
The bewitching author of Interview with the Vampire and other gothic bestsellers showed supernatural stamina: On the 25th stop of a 55-city book tour that will end Halloween night in a Miami cemetery, Rice, 55, signed for seven hours with only a single break (the night before, she had signed 1,800 books in a Tulsa store). "I love going to extremes," Rice told giddy admirers like Amanda White, 14, who donned a scarlet antebellum dress, copped a $50 best costume prize and promptly bought more Rice books with her winnings.
Blood donors were whisked to the front of the line after giving a pint of Vampire Lestat's precious liquid at a nearby station set up by the Oklahoma Blood Institute. Things got really weird when Russell Meredith, 29, briefly debated Clinton's health-care package with Rice. Meredith, a Republican, didn't sway his idol but remained a big fan. "I like the dark quality of her books," he explained. "I like the immortality of the vampires, the idea of living forever." (Imagine those medical bills.)
The last book was signed, and the ghoulish love fest ended at—when else?—the stroke of midnight.
- Contributors:
- Clare McHugh,
- Ross Drake,
- Stephen M. Silverman,
- Cynthia Sanz,
- Mark Bautz,
- Pam Lambert,
- Hallie Levine,
- Bob Stewart,
- Ralph Novak.
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!
