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Show iOiRALJBHiIiSaTOiRY SQ1ENOmEwWOm,WONi Rewriting world history FLOPHOUSE Life on BY STEVEN SILVER Two talented writers in the realm of science fiction and g events in their latest efforts, fantasy portray series. Harry Turtledoves both the third books in four-boo- k Breakthroughs is an action novel set during a fictionalized World War I in which the United States struggles in a war of world-shatterin- vengeance against the Confederate Stales. John Crowley's Damonomania is a philosophical novel, which hints at the end of the world as we know it. Breakthroughs (Del Ray. $26. ISBN 0345405633) continues the multi-viepoint saga of a world in which the South successfully seceded from the Union in the 1860s. Nearly 60 years later, the two nations arc at war again, this time as part of a worldwide conflict similar to the World War I fought in our own history. Turtledove's theater of action ranges from the South Atlantic to Canada as he presents the war through the eyes of combatants from both sides as well as civilians. This range of characters allows the author to present the political and social situations in all their complexity. Turtledove has reached the point in the story and his writing ability where initially unsympathetic characters come across as likable as the reader gets to know them better. In the previous novels in the series ( The Great War: American From and The Great Hue: Walk in Hell). Turtledove balanced the relative strengths and tactics of the two sides. In Breakthroughs. the balance of power clearly shifts in favor of the United Slates. This allows Turtledove to focus less on the military aspects of the war and look more closely at the societal changes that have occurred during the years the war has been waged. The issues the novel brings to the forefront as the war is wrapped up set the stage for the fourth, and final, novel in the series, which will examine the post-wa- r woild. While Breakthroughs is epic in its scope. Damonomania is a more intimate story, focusing on a few main characters far from the traditional centers of power. Rather than attempting to recreate the realistic horror of war, Crowley is more intent on creating an almost existential philosophical novel that looks at the beliefs and forces that drive our reality. Daeinonomania continues the story ItP.UM'HK'Kir of characters introduced by Crowley in Aegypt (1987) and Love and Sleep (1994). The focus of Crowleys tale is Rosie Rasmussen's attempt to discover the cause of the strange seizures afflicting her daughter. Sam. In the process of taking Sam to doctors and exploring alternative methods of diagnoses. Rosie becomes enamored of an ancient text, which, she believes, contains the key to Sam's cure. In the process, Rosie runs into a variety of evil forces intent on destroying the world, and all indicators point to the culmination of their plots during Halloween. Daemonomania is an ambitious novel in which Crowley strives to stretch the boundaries of the genre and succeeds in advancing the cutting edge of fantastic literature. Crowley's beautifully crafted work has been described as an acquired taste. His focus is not on plot or characters, but rather on visionary ideas. Using beautiful language, he weaves a pattern that manages to raise intriguing issues and possibilities. including the transformation of the past and the future. Both Breakthroughs and Dicmonomania arc well written, entertaining novels that demonstiale the broad scope of the science fiction genre. the Bowery By David Isay and Stacy Abramson Photographs by Harvey Wang Raadoa Home, $14.95 ISBN 0375503226 REVIEW BY JETT BYLES Variously described as growing grounds, medieval communities, respites for the weary, dysfunctional fraternity houses, and scenes from Dantes hell, the eight remaining flophouses on New York Citys Bowery make for a bracing amalgam of fertility and futility. As National lublic Radio contributor David Isay and crew note in this unflinching work of oral history, these spartan accommodations renting for as little as $4.50 a night arc also home to a rich but sadly vanishing milieu of strivers. eccentrics, t. and the simply Originating as a 1998 radio documentary on N PR's All Things Considered, this group portrait of 50 men from four of the remaining Bowery hotels offers an affecting glimpse of life on the stretch of lower Manhattan, that once reigned as ground zero for the nation's dispossessed. An estimated 25,000 men slept on the Bowery every night in its heyday, with almost a hundred flops renting cots or cubicles under bare bulbs for their weary inhabitants. But many flops were shuttered after tire G.l. Bill offered a new life for down-and-ou- A look veterans returning from World War II, and now. as the hotels are converted to office space or residential loffs amid the citys economic boom, each building's closure brings the end of a vibrant if dystopian, community. Ive had em all here from a priest to a murderer, says Sunshine Hotel manager Nathan Smith, and the voices from these edited transcripts of interviews are similarly varied. A former bank executive quotes Shakespeare as he explains his decision to embrace a life of nothingness and alcoholism. A man who grew up in a apartment recounts his fall after 20 years of drug smuggling, and the devastating blow when his family disowned him. Another resident tells of once working as a nurse's aid and caring for a wounded police officer, but then slipping into crime and killing three people. Some of these men have lived on the Bowery for 20 years or more, and each one has a riveting story. More than anything, its the stunning candor with which these men speak about their lives marked as they frequently are by deep psychological scars that elevates this book farm a sociological curio to a meditation on the human spirit Illustrated by Harvey Wang's stark photographs, this collection is suffused with a quietly ferocious will to survive, i is a writer and editor in New Jeff Bytes ' York. inside life on the Boweiy I) ) f Steven Silver is a fieelanre water urn Northbrook, Illinois, and a nominee for the lingo Awaid. READERS PARADISE 4 BR, 3 BA, beachfront rental, all amenities. Wonderful sunder k with panoramic oeran view IS minutes from Charleston, SC. ext 12 for additional information. Call I Special 15 discount Batik Page readers. for Photographer llaney Wang captures a moment in the life of a flophouse resident. |