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Show BOOKS 4E Sunday, May 24, 1992 Standard-Examiner Oates explores politics, sex, power in ‘Black Water’ Joyce Carol intense period,” the soft-spoken writer and Princeton professor said during a recent interview. “But it is Oates Chappaquiddick — I had such a By DONN FRY Seattle Times There is a point near the middle of Joyce Carol Oates’ slim new novel when politics and sexual de- strong sense of identity with Mary sire are shownto be identical sides of the sameshiny coin: “Politics, Her novel’s story is familiar, but the negotiating of power. Eros, the negotiating of power,” declares the cozy narrative voice. Chappa- The equation between sex, politics and power lies even closer to the moral and psychological center of “Black Water” (William Abrahams/Dutton, $17) than it does to the book’s physical center. More than anything, Oates’ novella is a meditation on the complex weave of physical attraction, celebrity and political power — and the uneasy place among them claimed by women in the 1990s. These concerns are summed up in a single word, though the word won't be found anywhere in 154 based on ideas I have had since quiddick is never mentioned. pages of text: Chappaquiddick. The tragic story of the 1969 automobile accident that claimed the life of a young woman named Mary Jo Kopechne and crippled the political aspirations of Sen. Edward Kennedy is the unavoidable subtext ot Uates’ gripping, halluci- natory tale. She doesn’t shy away from the comparison. “I wrote it last summerin a fairly Jo Kopechne... I became very mesmerized by the situation.” Oates, a prolific novelist whose many honorsinclude the National Book Award, said the Chappaquid- Marshall,” Oates said. “It all — and to signal the beginning of a very hard time for women.” ling Island, Maine, summer home of the parents of her old college friend, Buffy St. John. Though Buf- Morethan anything, “Black Water” gives voice to the one human being forever silenced by thereallife accident, the character at the heart of the sad drama who was completely overlooked in the sparring between reporters, court officials and the battery of pechne, underwater — had been among the many ideas and story fragments submerged in her note- Kelleher, an idealistic 26-year-old gofer and sometimewriter for a liberal magazine of dwindling circulation, Oates has imagined all that might have flashed through Mary Jo Kopechne’s mindat the end; it “Last summer, I was stimulated by the William Kennedy Smith rape trial and bytheresignation of (Supreme Court Justice) Thurgood has had too muchto drink, yet she claims her right to go against her own better judgment — sadly, ironically, because “if I don’t do as he asks there won’t be anylater.” The inevitable accident happens. In short scenes that loop hypnotically through reality, memory and Kelly, who wrote her honors the- ago. Through the character of Kelly is a startling, persuasive attempt to fully appreciate her sudden, immense fear and sorrow. The timeis today, just after the beach, and — a number of hours4 and many drinks later — he departs with her for his motel in Boothbay Harbor. Kelly knows he fy’s parents are away, the women sis at Brown on this very politician, is entranced when The Senator, to everyone’s surprise, actually shows up in a rented Toyota, having taken the ferry from nearby Boothbay Harbor. Separated from his wife, he arrives “loose-jointed and peppy as a kid ... a manin his mid-fifties who had the fatty-muscled body of a formerathlete.” During the “celebratory and care- lawyers who rushed to Kennedy’s defense more than two decades Senator. He even kisses her on the: and other friends plan a holiday party to which Buffy’s lover, a much-older Washington politico, has invited his longtime friend, identified only as “The Senator.” police, dick incident — in which a car driven by Kennedyran off a small bridge on the Massachusetts island, fatally trapping his passenger, Ko- books for years. Recent events brought it to the surface. Persian Gulf war, and Kelly is a Fourth of July guest at the Gray- seemed to signal the end of an era less” afternoon, there are sparks of attraction between Kelly and The hallucination, Oates captures Kelly’s futile last hopes and The Senator’s panicky “strategy in cri- 7 sis.” Finally, almost mercifully, the © | black water claims her. “Young womenare very roman- | tic and hopeful,” said Oates, ob- serving that sheseeslittle change. in students today from those a gen- _ i eration ago. “I remember being ~ that age, being so hopeful. I won-> 23 der if men are like that, too?” Utah authors help bake a cake ‘The Evening Star’ continues story Anthology of stones includes work by wnters from Park City, Logan standard-t by ity and wire ser > A new anthology of stories edited Na i] Public Radio personalSu Stamberg and author George BOOKSHELF Susan | Evans McCloud authors with Utah ties. Wedding Cake in the Mid- “The dle of the Road: 23 Variations ona Theme” (Norton, $19.95) includes stories by Pam Houston of Park City, whose “Cowboys are My Weakness” was published by Norton earlier this year, and Ron Carlson, a native of Logan who now } Her 20th book, ‘Abide the } Dark Dawn,’ is set in England during World War Il. teaches at Arizona State University in Tempe. The stores all have a central im- age: a wedding cake in the middle of a road, but the treatments are varied. Houston’s story, for instance, 1S set against the backdrop of the Uinta Mountains. Twocautious, wild-hearted lovers admit their commitment when onefollows an “old Eskimo custom”and builds a wedding cake out of snow. ** * Historical novelist Susan Evans McCloud’s 20th book, “Abide the Dark Dawn.” has been released in a commemorative hard-back edition, according to publisher Aspen Books. McCloud, a resident of Provo, specializes in LDS-orientedfiction. Her most recent book is not fiction, however — “Joseph Smith: A PhotoBiography” recently arrived R —° jarrett includes the works of two started in ‘Terms of Endearment’ in bookstores. “Abide the Dark Dawn” follows a young girl who lives in southern England during World War II. The heroine, Linnet, works at a coastal radar station tracking enemy air- craft and relaying coordinates to the gunners to shoot them down. Linnet’s crucible comes in the possibility that the man she loves is flying an enemy aircraft. McCloud attended Brigham Young University and has worked as a newspaper columnist. Later. she became a writer for the LDS Church Education System, writing seminary curriculum and such films as “John Baker’s Last Race.” Her first book, “Where the Heart Leads,” was published in 1979. It was followed by such works as In Margaret Blair Young's ‘Salvador,’ a woman flees a broken marriage and movesto El Salvador, where she and her parents embark on a unique mission to ‘save’ the Salvadorans. “Amelia’s Daughter” and the Civil War novel “By All We Hold Dear.” ** * In another recent offering by As- pen Books, Margaret Blair Young details a young woman’s search for redemption and peace in “Salvador.” Young’s “Salvador” won first place in the Utah Arts Council novel-writing contest in 1990, and “THE EVENING STAR.” By Larry McMurtry. Simon & Schuster. $23. It’s a common if not exactly laudabie strategy in the arts: You follow up a flop by retreating to safe ground, a setting where interest and familiarity are well established and where forgiveness can be easily attained. For Larry McMurtry, it’s Houston and the extended world of Aurora Greenway, the grand dame of “Terms of Endearment” — one of the Texas author’s best demises and births, love and longing, with numerous characters and several settings. Its aspirations are epic, but McMurtry’s execution, though friendly, is flawed. ; published by Deseret In “Salvador” ($9.95), a woman from ihe Wasatch Front flees a broken marriage and moves to El Salvador, where she and her parents embark on a unique mission to “save” the Salvadorans. the extended family ec his writing is 4 flawed. a Our last glimpse at this clan was Cautiously optimistic — Aurora looked toward building triumph from tragedy followed the death of her daughter Emma, and Aurera’s long-simmering affair with Gen. Hector Scott seemed headed for an amiable resolution. Almost two decadeslater, Aurora and the General stili haven’t married, though their affair has continued; now, however, they Davis reveals much aboutlife as a Reagan +5! ly compelling new additions,in- cluding friendly, but their lives, while the next generation of Greenways trods a variety Walls,” or a 1 NV Into His new novelis inspiration for an Academy Award-winning movie. That it comes on the heels of the disappointing “Buffalo Girls” could be a coincidence, but it couldn't have been timed better. “The Evening Star” finds Aurora and most of “Term’s” principais in the fading twilight of of rough paths. It’s a book about }.sl McMurtry tosses somepotential- and most popular novels and the is the author of “House Without Books. >| McMurtry through a psychiatric institution and has a son with his bisexual live-in lover, Jane, and Melanie is pregnant and eventually heads with her boyfriend to California. a a self-made |-,! psychotherapist who treats (and beds) several of the characters and a Frenchman whose anxious ; },7,!C pursuit of Aurora provides comic relief. Though it, too, suffered a bit of sprawl, “Terms of Endearment” was focused bythe rela- tionship between Aurora and Emmaand spiced bytheir spiky exchanges. In contrast, “The Evening Star” is flabby and frustrating, embracing too many characters and too manyseparate circumstances; there is no plot here, but a series of convoluted subplots that seldom intersect. spend their time bickering and trudging, without grace, into old age — the Generalis frail and on the edge of senility, while Aurora somewhat pathetically continues Star” is a book you’ll finish. We care about these characters if on- to bait and pursue suitors. Meanwhile, Emma’s oldest son ment.” But that said, “The Evening ly because we connected so well with them in “Terms of Endear- Tommyis in prison for murder- By Gary Graff ing a girlfriend, Teddy has been Knight-Ridder Newspapers BEST SELLERS Publishers Weekly posed to be about self-acceptance, and, really, the staring can’t be helped. She is right there. This is her fourth book, but thefirst three were billed as fiction. Patti Davis, daughter of Ronald and NancyReagan. Sitting not two feet away, retro-1970s in a sleeve- her daughter, as Davis tells us in her newest, and first, non-fiction book, “The WayI SeeIt” (Putnam, $22.95). “Her hand drew back and slapped myface. Then, she turned and walked out, leaving me listening to the fluorescent hum of the bathroom light. I stared at my face, the mark on my cheek. I sat down on the floor and waited for it to fade — I knewby that time how long it took.” It took almost forever. Davis is 39 years old now and still feels the sting. She says she has not seen her mother (except maybe on TV) in years. The mean, red imprint of Nancy’s hand has faded from Davis’ cheek but not her per- “But I forgive them. I’ve really worked it through.” And been paid handsomely for ing America.” But America revels in hard-core dysfunction, the story sull sells. Davis’ first three books were thinly veiled as fiction: “Home Front” (1986) is, according to its flap copy, an “autobiographical novel about coming ofage in the public Catharsis commands a lot of cash, especially if the person purging herself in print is the daughter of the (former) Great Communicator and First Dragon Lady. In the childish voice of “The WayI See It,” Ron is described as about “howpolitical conspiracyin- painfully distant, if not totally disU.S. president — guilty of benign neglect. Nancy, on the other hand, is a well-manicured monster. A manipulative, pill-popping control OGDENPQ CLC eye”; “Deadfall” (1989) fects private lives,” and “A House of Secrets” (1991) about “a woman coming to terms with her debilitating childhood in ... successful but destructive family.” “The Way I See It” is all of the above, only this time told as fact. Never mind the verbal altercations quoted are years-old memories. 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A parent — and later a Hardcoverfiction is, well, boring. ; Lots of things made Nancy slap If that is so, then she maybeforgiven if the wording of some conversations is imprecise. What is less easy to forgive is that the book Because there’s a !ot of the This is Davis’ fourth book about the terrors of growing up a Reagan, most of which already have been described by Davis and her siblings on “Donahue” and “Good Morn- 4 >: hanging over one, heavily made-up eye — a style that always enraged Nancy. Made Nancy reach out and slap her daughter. sona. Invisible, the injury nevertheless attracts stares and elicits pity, even annoyance, because Davis cannot stop pointing it out. “There was physical abuse, there was emotional abuse, there was substance abuse,” Davis says, absently fingering a dangling earring. true.” 4 less jean jacket, creamy-color crocheted skirt, boots and turquoise bangles. 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The Juiceman’s Power of Davis says it’s “essentially all — Seattle Times freak who not only slaps Davis daily but forces her to wear truly gawd-awful frou-frou dresses. “I followed her into the dressing room and sulkily tried on the dresses she had chosen, hating every one of them and making that clear. I think it was the bib dress rc Patti Davis By MARLA WILLIAMS |