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Show rF THE Nam !). DROWNING OatT I PEOPLE By Richard Mason Warner, $24 ISBN Time 0446525243 Warner AudioBookl, $24.98, 1570426910 REVIEW BY MAUDE MCDANIEL Who can resist a wunderkind? Richard Mason is 20 years old, and he has already published a novel. What more need be said? In this case, a great deal. Youthful prodigy is the least of the matter with regard to The Drowning People. This first novel, by a young Oxford student who began writing it when he was 18. is striking in its wisdom and thoughtful beyond its author's years. It would be a worthwhile addition to any writer's body of work for a teenager emeritus, it's a stunner. The story of James Farrell is, he admits, one of a naif loose in a world that does not suffer innocents gladly. A budding concert violinist, he falls in love at 22 with Ella Harcourt. an heiress of the English aristocracy. who, he believes, needs his help to escape the stultifying influences of her privileged life. Unwilling to delve below the surface of his dream of love, in a moment of weakness he goes along with a foolish demand of Ella's that results in tragedy for his accompanist and best friend, Eric de Vaugirard. The resulting guilt isolates him from his love for several years. When he and Ella come together again, a new player has arrived front and center, Sarah Harcourt, Ellas cousin, her carbon copy in looks, but as different from Ella as ice is from warm water. Murder ensues, so heinous that James must find shelter in a life of serenity, order, and security as obsessive as his earlier lives. Only at 70 does he discover the pervasiveness of the evil touching his own life, and take a shocking step to make things right. He kills his wife. That act is the start of his story, which is told in the form of a book-lonrecollection full of what ifs and if onlys (a few too many perhaps). Like ancient mountains, the jagged enthusiasm of youth is palpably wom down by the flow of reminiscing old age, as James arrives at a truer understanding of his experience as one of the drowning people who succumb to the flood of life itself. Its a remarkable achievement for so young a writer, and the kind of book that makes you agree with Logan Pearsall Smith, who said, People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading. g Maude McDaniel is a freelance writer in Cumberland, Maryland. Baseball for Everybody Tom. Glavines Guide to Americas Game Tom Glavine with Brian Tarcy rn r vt n n live. SWIMMING TO CATALINA By (World Series MVP, 1991 & 1998 Cy Young Award u'intter) delivers the inside pitch about Americas most beloved game. On the heels of the most amazing baseball season in 50 years, Glavine gives fans and players the goods tips, quips, quotes a and anecdotes behind-the-scene- s winner about the glories of the American game. ISBN 256 pages $1995, paper Woods 0060183691 HirpcrAudio, $25, 0694519383 ISBN REVIEW BY BRUCE TIERNEY On a sultry Los Angeles summer Stone night, Barrington should have been having the time of his life. The boat was spirited, the ocean calm, the lights of Catalina twinkling in the distance. He had $25,000 in found money and a steamy redhead awaiting him back on shore. Perfect, but for the fact that he was bound hand and foot, his mouth duct-tape- shut, and his d allergies to L.A. smog blocking most of his breathing through his nose. Sublime, but for two thugs named Vinnie and Manny, who are currently chaining him to an anchor and manhandling him to the stem. Compliments of Onofrio Ippolito, Manny says maliciously, planting his foot in the small of Stone's back and kicking him overboard. The balance of Swimming to Catalina is told in flashback: it seems e that Stone's girlfriend. Arrington, has gotten married to screen idol Vance Calder. (If she had married Stone, she would have been Arrington Barrington, which is too painful to contemplate.) Now Arrington has gone one-tim- piBUPPPHi D mf-- mr SLIGHTLY CHIPPED Footnotes in Booklore and Nancy Coldstone Thomas Dunne Books, $22.95 By Lawrence ISBN Braves ace AtlantaGlavine Stuart HarperCollins, $25 0312205872 REVIEW BY BOB RUGGIERO f i fUii Bibliophiles got to read about a subject quite close to home themselves with the 1997 publication of Used and Rare. In it, married authors Law rence and Nancy Goldstone chronicled their initial adventures and misadventures into the world of book collecting. Along the e way. they encountered characters that would make any fiction w riter envious, and. through skillful narrative pacing, made reading about the hunt" for musty secondhand tomes engrossing. In Slightly Chipped more of a companion volume than a sequel the Goldstones actually surpass their first effort on the same subject. Now a bit more experienced, they improve on their story by visiting more of a variety of settings, from a library book sale to a seemingly staid rare book discussion group. The most memorable chapters chronicle an investigation" into the almost cultish readers and collectors of mystery books (including a real-lif- tn&ttgfr, ntmm- 8 MAY 1999 missing, and Vance Calder summons Stone to 111 1 Til help find her. Oh, and one more small detail: Arrington is pregnant, perhaps with Stones child. Reluctantly Stone leaves his digs in the Big Apple and catches the redeye to the Big Orange. Stones inquiries into Arringtons disappearance do not go unnoticed by the criminal element of Los Angeles. It seems that wherever he goes a silver Lincoln Town Car follows. He changes hotels, changes cars, to no avail. The Town Car is registered to Onofrio Ippolito. a shady investment banker suspected to be linked to organized crime. The plot thickens . . On the verge of a breakthrough. Stone receives a call from an excited Vance Calder: Arrington has returned, and Stones services will no longer be required. (If this sounds a bit fishy to you, imagine how it sounds to Stone.) Stone decides to stay in L.A. a few more days, albeit incognito, to sniff around and see what he can turn up. Before hes through a movie studio will be in turmoil, a criminal operation will be revealed, a mystery or two will be solved, and several people will wind up deceased. In Swimming to Catalina, Stuart Woods has delivered another in a series of tightly plotted novels of 1 . suspense. S' Bruce Tierney lives in Nashville, Tennessee. disastrous evening at the Edgar Awards) and their own quest to buy books at Sothebys Duke and Duchess of Windsor auction. The Goldstones also delve a bit deeper into the stories about the books and authors behind their purchases, including solid background information on Bram Stoker's Dracula and the various writings of the Bloomsbury group. The inclusion helps you appreciate their desire to own the books, and you cant help but feel involved in their successes and failures or want to read some of the books discussed. The weaknesses in this booh are the same as in the first: a tendency toward and sniping at people they don't like; unsolicited reviews" of specific bookstores. people, and businesses that may or may not be balanced and deserved; and a strange dwelling on the physical appearances of those the authors seem to consider unattractive. Regardless, Slightly Chipped, like its predecessor, is a delightful, fresh journey. And even if you couldn't tell the difference between the Kelmscott Chaucer and a modem picture book. Slightly Chipped is a welcome addition to any collection, e Bob Ruggiero is a freelance journalist based in Houston, Texas. MNWW.bOOhpgW" |