BOOKS AT A GLANCE

REVIEWS IN BRIEF *Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness William Styron (Random House, $15.95) An intense account, often revealing and sometimes not, of the novelist's bout with suicidal depression. A-

*The Final Club Geoffrey Wolff (Knopf, $19.95) A precisely rendered, bittersweet novel of manners about undergraduate life at Princeton during the late '50s. B+

*The General in His Labyrinth Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Knopf, $19.95) In this somber novel, Garcia Marquez brings Simon Bolivar to life in all his eccentric, majestic individuality and makes his fate carry universal resonance. A-

*Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business Fredric Dannen (Times Books, $19.95) A revealing look at the men who manipulate the rock & roll business. A

*Hocus Pocus Kurt Vonnegut (Putnam, $21.95) Vonnegut's darkest satire yet. A-

*A Hole in the World Richard Rhodes (Simon & Schuster, $19.95) This book-about Rhodes' harrowing childhood-is a therapeutic exercise accomplished with artistry and a minimum of self-pity. A

*My Son's Story Nadine Gordimer (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $19.95) A stiff, small novel that falls far short of such Gordimer masterpieces as Burger's Daughter and A Sport of Nature. C

*The Plains of Passage Jean Auel (Crown, $24.95) The fourth Ice Age saga from Auel, still featuring Ayla, her tall, blond, omnicompetent heroine. B+

*The Polk Conspiracy: Murder and Cover-up in the Case of CBS News Correspondent George Polk Kati Marton (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $22.95) As Marton shows, the life and death of this young reporter still epitomize the struggle between journalists committed to discovering the truth and governments determined to manipulate it. A-

*Rabbit at Rest John Updike (Knopf, $21.95) The energy of this final Rabbit novel is enormous, even if its moral and psychological depth is not. B+

*Road Show Roger Simon (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $19.95) As everyone knows, the 1988 presidential campaign was a long and dull one, which is why this droll, instructive book about it comes as such a relief. B+

*The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer Jennifer Lynch (Pocket, $8.95) Lynch takes her father David's portrait of a good girl gone bad to wonderfully shocking lengths. B+

*Spy Sinker Len Deighton (HarperCollins, $21.95) What hampers the final volume of Deighton's Cold War trilogy is not the recent thaw in East-West relations, but the improbabilities of its characters' psychology and motivation. B

*Theodore Dreiser: An American Journey 1908-1945 Richard Lingeman (Putnam, $39.95) Like Dreisee's own elephantine, disheveled masterpiece, this immense book is well worth plowing through. B+

ALSO NOTED *The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore Harold McGee (North Point Press, $19.95) A lively and diverting look at everything from the history of the persimmon to the secret behind a perfect beurre blanc. A

*The House of Mirth Edith Wharton (Vintage/The Library of America, paperback, $9.50) A new edition of Edith Wharton's masterful novel about the hidden injuries of class. A

*My Crowd: A Classic Collection of Cartoons Charles Addams (Fireside, paperback, $10.95) A 20th-anniversary edition of Addams' peerless collection. A

*A Reasonable Madness Fran Dorf (Birch Lane Press, $18.95) A satisfying psychological thriller about a woman who confesses to a grisly murder and the psychiatrist who falls in love with her. B

*Soho Walls: Beyond Graffiti David Robinson (Thames and Hudson, paperback, $18.95) Too much nonsense has been written about graffiti as an art form. Soho Walls is a celebration of something else-wall art-and it is magnificent. A

*True Grits: The Southern Foods Mail-Order Catalog Joni Miller (Workman, paperback, $10.95) Where to get such staples as White Lily flour and Double Deluxe Moon Pies. A