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Show 2E TVS It Lake Tribune Snady, April 28, Master of absurdist humor writes of death, disease, Disney World 1985 The Magic Kingdom, by Stanley Elkin; Dntton, pp, $106. For a Newsday interview leveral year ago, novelist Stanley Elkin showed up wearing black suspenders decorated with skulls and cross bones. When asked about them, the master of absurdist humor replied, "They're my kind of folks." Death, rendered with a smile, has become commonplace in Elkin's recent work, notably The Lnnng End (1979). In The Magic Kingdom the author pursues the theme with a manic, wacky vengeance. Audaciously conceived characters, the sliest of dialogue, sophisticated wit allied to generosity of spirit, and writing that comes at the reader with hurricane force these are what make Elkins magical mystery tour such a splendid work of fiction. Creates Foundation Eddy Bayle, Elkin's tour guide, is the British father of a son who died at age 12. While Liam endured 11 operations in three years, Eddy was constantly in the public eye, a furious circuit To griever on the talk-shotend his psychic wounds after tne boy's death, Eddy sets up a foundation to treat terminally ill children to a dream vacation" at Disney 317 w The great moorish pavilion immediately identified Saltair, Utahs most famous resort, which graced the south shore of the Great Salt Lake until November 1970. Saltair World. Eddy assembles a team of eccen- trics to shepherd his flock through Recalling the Lady of the Lake Saltair, by Nancy D. McCormick and John S. McCormick; University ef Utah Press, 109 pp., $14.95. In the late 1880s the . Deseret .Veus warned parents that it was criminal" to allow young children to go unprotected to the pleasure resorts" which had sprung up on the shores of the Great Salt Lake. The resorts, said the newspaper, exposed Mormon children to the vil-- . lainous arts of practiced voluptuaries" and degraded character destroyers" who sought to overthrow" the Mormon Church. To counter these evil influences and provide a "wholesome" place for Mormons to swim, the church leadership decided in 1893 to build it's own resort Saltair. Other Implications Nancy McCormick, a history teacher at Highland High School, and John McCormick, historian at the Utah State Historical Society, said in this excellent new book on the resort that Mormon leaders also wanted to p Salt Cakr ! i ; i Sribmu ! Book ! i make Saltair a symbol that Utah was making an accommodation" with American society. "When church leaders and others talked about the importance of Sal-laas an advertising agent' spreading Utah's name and fame. they meant both that Utah was a place of modern recreational opportunities and that it was no longer a strange, isolated land of curious people and practices." said the authors. ir Saltair successfully combines Modern classic republished The Desert Year, by Josepk Wood Krutch; University of Arizona Press, Paperback. Joseph Wood Krutch was a drama and literary critic for The Nation long before he first visited the Southwest in the 1930s and was enchanted by the Sonoran Desert. He later moved from his home in Connecticut, pulled up stakes and lived out his life .in Tucson, Ariz.. where he produced some of his finest writing and ultimately earned a reputation as a noted naturalist. He w as the author of The Voice of the Desert and Grand Cunyon: Today and All Its Yesterdays. Then, in 1952. W. Sloane A Associates pub- $9.95. lished The Desert Year, which was hailed by the Sew York Herald-Tribun- e as "the finest literary work on the natural setting of the Southwest since the publication of Mary Austin's Land of Little Rain." In The Desert Year, Krutch com- bines observations on sparrows, stars, and spadefoot toads with refer- three approaches to telling the story of Utah's most famous resort. First is a straightforward factual text which provides all the names, dates and incidents needed to tell the story. Second is a compilation of short anecdotes and colorful remembrances from people who visited Saltair. Sprinkled throughout the book, these lend a human touch to the sometimes dry historical details. Tus-saud- 's Amazing Photographs Reviews I Orlando's magic kingdom: Dr. Moorhead, an eminent internist who regards Jews as models of ill health; Colin Bible, a homosexual nurse who steals high-tec- h secrets from Disneys Hall of Presidents for his lover, the artistic director of Madame Wax Museum in London; Mary Cottle, a nursemaid preoccupied with masturbation; and Nedra Carp, formerly a nanny in the Royal Household, who bad no skill with even feverish children let alone dying ones." Different Illnesses Each of their charges suffers from a different illness: Janet Order's heart disease gives her body a bluish cast; Noah Cloth's bones are crum ences to numerous literary figures including Wordsworth and Thoreau. "who realized the rare moment is not the moment when there is something worth looking at but the moment when we are capable of seeing." University of Arizona Press has brought this modern classic back into H.S. print. The final and perhaps most interesting aspect of the book is the illustrations. Saltair contains an amazing collection of old photographs, post cards, paintings, drawings and advertisements which show the beauty of the resort and help explain its Ripples of Intuitioa, by Merlo J. Pusey, 134 pp., Eden Hill. Having won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, the Bancroft Prize for Biography, an honorary degree from Brigham Young University, and having spent much of his lifetime writing editorials for the Washington Post. Merlo Pusey has turned to poetry. Not the poetry of the "little magazines" or the butcher-pape- r presses, but clear, understandable musings concerning nature, life and people. He takes on some mighty large topics; including the Grand Canyon, Bryce and the Great White Throne, subjects difficult enough for photographers or geologists to deal with, much less poets. He's concerned with hummingbirds, autumn, death, glaciers. Eddie Rickenbacker. rural life all manner of things. And he expresses his thoughts about such subjects as well, or at least just as clearly, in verse as he has in prose. Since it is incumbent upon a critic of a volume of poetry to quote at least a few lines, here goes, Merlo: 1970. Saltair III is the converted aircraft hangar which still stands near the site of the previous resorts. It. too. is running into problems, but this time they're from the rapidly rising Great Salt Lake rather than fire. of high-power- rt vice-vers- a. well-bein- self-induc- At the very least, Colin points out, they (except for Charles) will never have to suffer the ravages of aging. While watching a parade, he directs their attention to the spectators: Describes Spectators "They stared at . . . women, depleted, tired, who sat on benches, their dresses hiked well above their knees, their legs (in heavy stockings d the color of miscegenetic, flesh) not so much spread as forgotten, separated, guided by the collapsing, melted lines of their thighs. At their husbands . . . their hands in their laps, incurious as people who have just folded in poker. At a man in shorts, the enlarged coffee-creame- ... break-through- Not if s. youre dead, I won't. Irooic Refrain And like a refrain in some skeptic's hymnal, Elkin keeps inserting the line: Because everything has a per- fectly reasonable explanation. It's an ironic refrain, of course, and the key to the authors bittersweet with death's inevitability, and the key to his artistry. What could be more poignant than the death of a child? Yet Stanley Elkin, one of America's most inventive writers, makes music of the macabre. "The Magic Kingdom is madly funny, strangely unsettling and altogethDan Cryer, Newsday. er wise. Merlo Pusey turns pen to poetry Second Resort The second Saltair. which opened in 1926. was similar to the first except larger and more elaborate. It, too, burned to the ground in November joyment for those who Mudd-Gaddi- Ripples of Intuition popularity. The McCormicks said Saltair is actually the name of three resorts which have occupied the south shore of the Great Salt Lake. The first was a huge Moorish structure built atop piles in the lake. The dome over the pavilion was about the size of the dome in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square. It was designed by Richard Kletting. architect of the Utah Capitol. Fire destroyed the first Saltair in 1925. Saltair should provide hours veins on hi legs like, wax dripping down Chianti bottle in Italian restaurants," It's easy to criticize the novel for relying too much on commentary (as in the passage above) or interior monologue, rather than the characters actions, to carry along the story. Easy, but terribly misguided, since Elkins virtuosity in these departrealElkin shrewdly Disney World, ments is awesome. izes. is too easy a mark. ConsequentRoller Coaster of Prose ly, Main Street USA, Adventureland, so roller coaster of not The Fantasyland and the rest are a backof street-smarushes bland as melange by, of satire prose much objects slang and high eloquence. In ground against which the antics of his this sense, it resembles Saul Bellow's characters take on a sharper definition. Its the kids who bring magic to triumphant style, yet it's always Elvoice we hear. kin's Orlando, rather than There are frequent asides, shifts of Leader of the Pack tone, flashbacks, sentences that roll Benny Maxine, at 15 the eldest of on for a page. of leader the be to the children, tends We listen to a homosexuals taunts, the pack. Hes always mouthing off, laments about the chila nursemaid's elevahotel teasing the girls, riding dren she could never bear, a doctor's tors in search of trouble. He eventualg and dismeditations on ly finds it in Room 822, which has awe before the childrens the been Mary Cottle's secret hideaway ease, ecstasies. Later mysteries of sex and death, a father's for her refusal to accept the loss of his son: some of the children and Colin, sepaown erotic 822 for their Because if you really are dead to Uke rately, not that I think you are, you underexplorations. The book walks a fine line between stand, not for a minute, Eddy whisa calm acceptance of death and a pers to the memory of his dead Liam, in the event, on the outside rage to live. None of the kids runs "but just chance, I don't want to hear about it. I from the knowledge that death is imwon't hear about it. Nor will I listen minent, yet they are too busy for self-pitto a word about bold cures and new bling, Gauchers direase is enlarging his spleBenny Maxines spleen, and Rena of Morgan sense humor, netic s has cystic fibrosis; Charles and look him makes progeria act like a senile old man; Lydia Conscience appears to be pregnant but an ovarian tumor is killing her, and Tony Wood Is dying of leukemia. en- remember dancing in the pavilion and the open-ai- r tram rides to and from the resort. It's also a valuable addition to the Jim Woolf. state's history. The Lowly Shovel keep a man on good terms with the earth There is nothing quite as useful as a shovel. Of course a bulldozer moves The shovel is a friendly thing To more dirt. But did you ever use a bulldozer to plant a rose? Or prepare your ground for your tomato crop? Or. The Hummingbird At first a harmonious whirring As of an angel's wings Yet soft and gently stirring An echo of miniature things . . . Jack Goodman nfivxNfsntcS THIS YEAR, GIVE YOUR MOTHER A GIFT SHE WILL TREASURE... MOTHERS DAY TO STOP Home Break-ins- ! wm annscainiiaj (UqGS) cfiiXSB PROTECT Your Valuables. Heavy 2" Steel Frame wm CEEDstaan) (15X22) Q! iGSD INSULATE 85 All There -Sait Lake s is no better Mothers Day Gift ILAIDIHL latest f ' X M LLadro collection More than 100 pieces See our exquisite limited editions. 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