What's That Pig Outdoors?: A Memoir of Deafness (first published in 1990)
Henry Kisor
In this unusual
autobiography, Kisor — the book review editor of the Chicago
Sun-Times — describes how he lives with his deafness, the result of a
bout with acute meningitis at age 3. Whatever its implications for
others, his struggle to connect with the wider world has produced a
remarkable memoir. A-
Room Temperature (1990)
Nicholson Baker
Baker's
slim, intensely funny, and moving second novel is about a guy named
Mike and his thoughts while sitting in a rocking chair, feeding his
6-month-old son a bottle on a Wednesday afternoon at 3:15. A
Rolling Stone Magazine: The Uncensored History (1990)
Robert Draper
A brisk and passionate account of the
magazine's tumultuous 23-year history. Although he describes a
magazine that eventually betrayed its promise and broke its writers'
(and staffers') hearts, Draper never quite plumbs the mystery of how
it managed to be so breathtakingly good during its first five years.
B
Soviet Women: Walking the Tighrope (1990)
Francine du Plessix Gray
An intimate and vivid portrait of the
Soviet Union told through interviews with Soviet women. As a
Russian-speaking American feminist who is also capable of using the
word ''henpecked'' without irony, Gray turns out to be the perfect
Gulliver to guide readers through a land of almost dizzying paradox.
B+
Disturbing the Peace (1990)
Vaclav Havel
Readers
interested in learning more about the playwright who became president
of his country will find no better place to begin than Disturbing the
Peace. Originally circulated surreptitiously in Czechoslovakia in
1986, the text grew out of a set of written questions, many quite
probing, composed by exiled Czech journalist Karel Hvizdala and
answered by Havel. A clear and quite winning account of a reluctant
hero's life and ideals. A-
Shiloh (1952)
Shelby Foote
In the wake of Foote's
celebrity as the principal commentator for Ken Burns' PBS
documentary, The Civil War, Vintage Books has released two of his
novels. Shiloh re-creates the events of the two-day battle of Shiloh
in the words of Confederate and Union soldiers. This was the battle
that dashed a nation's hopes for a short war, and the narrative
reflects the pervasive sense of tragedy and futility on both sides of
the conflict. A
September September (1979)
Shelby Foote
Foote again
uses a historic event as the basis for a narrative. In September
1957, as Arkansas governor Orval Faubus is poised to call out the
National Guard to prevent the integration of Central High School in
Little Rock, white ex-con Rufus Hutton is heading toward Memphis.
With his girlfriend, Reeny Perdew, and partner in crime Podjo Harris,
he intends to kidnap the grandson of the richest black businessman in
Memphis, making the act seem the work of white racists. A fast-paced, entertaining tale about a triangle of losers. A
